News

• From 11.30pm on Saturday 8 June 2019 to 10.30am on Sunday 9 June 2019.
• From 11.30pm on Saturday 15 June 2019 to 10.30am on Sunday 16 June 2019.

A further period of scheduled maintenance will take place on 17 June 2019 from 9am to 5pm (at the latest) on the VAT APIs and the Online Tax Account. This release will fix a known issue allowing customers with a numeric period key to view previously submitted returns and their obligations periods will be marked as fulfilled. Customers will still be able to sign up to the service during this time.

Software will receive a 500 service unavailable message during these times.

This is to let you know that scheduled maintenance to the Making Tax Digital (MTD) VAT service will take place on Thursday 16^th MAY 2019 between 10pm to midnight.

As a result of the downtime you will be unable to use the VAT API service

The service availability page on GOV.UK has been updated to include details of the downtime.

We have been notified by HMRC:

Essential maintenance to the Making Tax Digital (MTD) VAT service has been scheduled from 4pm on Saturday 11^th May until 4pm on Monday 13^th May. As a result some services will be unavailable.

During the maintenance period, users will be unable to:

• Sign up for Making for Tax Digital,
• Create an Agent services account,
• View previous submissions and payment details,
• Set up new or cancel and amend existing direct debits,
• Review and update any business details.

HMRC will now be shuttering the VAT APIs from 5pm – 11.30pm on Saturday the 11^th May. Between these time users will NOT be able to submit VAT returns. We apologise for the short notice of this change to the service outage.

HMRC is aware that since the submission issue on Friday 12^th April (which has been addressed and submissions are now completing successfully) the receipt ID is not being returned in all cases.  HMRC IT Teams continue to investigate this issue and are treating this as a priority.  HMRC can however assure customers that submissions are being received successfully and are being processed.

It came to our attention at the start of this week that our International friends who want to submit VAT returns on behalf of UK Entities were experiencing problems because we were assuming UK regional settings.
More on our updates can be found here

We have been sent these Mythbusters from HMRC

From 1 April 2019 most businesses above the VAT threshold will need to keep their records digitally and submit their VAT return using compatible software.

Myth 1: Businesses can’t use spreadsheets as part of MTD

This is not correct

Businesses can choose to use spreadsheets to both maintain digital records and perform tax calculations, provided the spreadsheets combine with some form of ‘bridging’ software that will allow their VAT return data to be sent to HMRC from the spreadsheet.

Myth 2: Everyone will have to join the service by 1 April 2019

This is not correct

Businesses are required to join MTD and submit their VAT returns using the new service for their first VAT period which begins on or after 1 April. For the majority, who file quarterly, their first MTD returns won’t be due until August or later. But remember – businesses will need to have signed up to the service, begun keeping their records digitally and set up their MTD compliant software to send information to MTD, in good time before they file their first return under MTD.

Myth 3: Will customers over the VAT threshold be automatically signed up to MTD from 1st April?

This is not correct

MTD requires customers to sign up to the service, so that we can verify their information and migrate their record to the MTD system. HMRC will not be undertaking a wholesale migration from 1st April 2019.

Important: businesses should not sign up to MTD until they have filed their last return through the old xml route. This is because sign up migrates their record to our new MTD system and closes off the xml channel.

Myth 4: Under MTD, businesses will have to provide more information than they already do

This is not correct

No business will need to provide information to HMRC more regularly than they do now, nor send any additional information.

Myth 5: MTD won’t reduce errors

This is not correct

Keeping records on paper and submitting VAT returns to HMRC manually results in errors – in a recent YouGov poll 61% of businesses said they have previously lost receipts – and errors also occur in the manual transposition of data and manual calculations. MTD offers a more integrated approach to business administration and tax, reducing the time businesses spend on administration in the longer term and making it easier for them to get their tax right.

Myth 6: Small businesses should be automatically exempt

This is not correct

The smallest businesses are already exempt from MTD. Only those with taxable turnover above the VAT threshold of £85,000 are required to join MTD, although the c.1m VAT registered businesses below the threshold can choose to join voluntarily. Businesses that cannot go digital will not be required to do so.

Myth 7: HMRC will penalise me if I get the new process wrong

This is not correct

HMRC recognises that businesses will require time to become familiar with the new requirements of MTD. During the first year of mandation HMRC will take a light touch approach to digital record keeping and filing penalties where businesses are doing their best to comply with the law.

At the request of HMRC we have added extra data into the messages that we send them to support their fraud prevention changes. 
As we are sending extra data about your machine and our software we have updated our privacy policy to reflect that. 
We do not retain the extra information we send within our software.

Springboard IT are happy to announce the full public release of our MTD Excel Solution,
An HMRC recognised solution, provided as an Excel Add-in. HMRC refer to the solution we are offering as ‘bridging software’ a permanent solution between an existing piece of software and the updated HMRC VAT Submission Gateway