Making Tax Digital Update

Businesses with turnover above the VAT threshold of £85,000 need to file their quarterly VAT returns under the new Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative, commencing on or after 1st April 2019.

Those businesses who were due to file their first VAT return in the next few days under this new initiative (the Q/E June 2019 VAT return), may have experienced delays in signing up to MTD with HMRC this week. In some cases, HMRC’s confirmation emails have been taking longer than 72 hours to appear in inboxes.

HMRC have now announced that if you pay by Direct Debit, the sign-up window has closed for the 7th August, but businesses won’t be penalised at this time. They are recommending you file your return in the old way and to sign up in time for the next return once the Direct Debit has been paid.

HMRC are advising that although you will not be penalised, you will receive a letter informing you that the deadline was missed and will request that action be taken to not miss the next deadline.

To avoid any future penalties we urge you to try signing up for MTD with HMRC once the Direct Debit for the June quarter’s VAT payment has been taken. It is highly unlikely that HMRC will be as lenient if a business fails to sign up for the subsequent quarter.

Please give us a call on 01202 717867 if you are unsure about what to do, and one of our MTD experts will be able to help you.

For more information about Making Tax Digital read our previous post here