The other monster coming over the hill from 1 April is MTD for VAT. All clients must comply with these new requirements to keep digital VAT records and to file their VAT return using MTD-compatible software.
However, you may well ask why you should, and what will stop you submitting your VAT return as you have always done. The answer to this has two parts: closure of the VAT portal and penalties. We will cover the penalty position in a later newsletter.
The current online form for submitting the VAT return (the VAT portal) will be closed for businesses who must join MTD, once you have signed up (or we have signed you up). However, HMRC wants to make it as easy as possible for businesses to carry on filing their VAT returns over the transition to MTD, so the portal will not shut immediately.
If you have difficulty in filing your first VAT return which is due under MTD, you will have the option of filing using the old VAT portal. However, this concession will not be stretched for the second VAT return due under MTD. This will give you a little more time to get to grips with MTD-compatible software; a sort of live test period.
Those clients which feel they are fully ready to start filing VAT returns under MTD can now join the VAT pilot programme. This is pilot open to all categories of businesses who will be mandated into MTD from their first VAT period which begins on or after 1 April 2019.