Making Tax Digital - April 2019 Update...
April is here, which means that Making Tax Digital from HMRC is now in effect. So I thought I'd give you a quick update to let you know where we are with MTD.
All of the code for MTD is complete, and we're currently waiting for HMRC to schedule us in for a demonstration so that we can gain approval for Easify with respect to MTD for VAT. We hoped to be given a demonstration slot three weeks ago, but so far haven't had any communications back from them so we can only assume they are totally snowed under with MTD approvals, and other tasks.
The first MTD VAT returns won't be required to be submitted until the end of June, so there is no immediate requirement to be able to submit a VAT return via MTD.
We hope to be able to achieve approval from MTD in the next few weeks, and aim to release the next free upgrade to Easify which contains the VAT reporting code at that time.
In the meantime, Easify already meets the requirement of MTD to record all your transactions digitally, so as long as you record your sales and purchases in Easify you will be ready to generate and submit your VAT return from Easify when we have achieved HMRC approval.
There are two things that you won't be able to do without the new code with respect to VAT reporting, and these are to exclude certain Purchase Types from VAT returns, and you won't be able to issue or receive invoices for part payments or payment plans.
With respect to excluding certain purchase types, when you upgrade Easify it will automatically update the default purchase types as to whether they are vatable or not, and you can manually set the vatable status of any custom purchase types you have added manually.
And with the payment plans, or invoicing for part payments, this will only affect your VAT reporting if you issue invoices for part payments or deposits, or receive invoices for purchases for part payments or deposits, and only if you use the Standard VAT scheme. If you use Cash based VAT Accounting this will have no effect on your VAT reporting.
In summary, we anticipate releasing the final (HMRC approved) update to Easify for MTD in about 2 weeks' time depending on the availability of HMRC to sign things off.
You can continue to use Easify in the meantime, and it will record everything you need to complete your VAT return in Easify.
We have published the final documentation for the forthcoming update to Easify here:
https://www.easify.co.uk/Help/finance_vat_returns_overview
And you can find out more about using Easify for MTD VAT here:
https://www.easify.co.uk/Help/hmrc_making_tax_digital_mtd
Click here to learn more about the forthcoming Payment Plans system in Easify.
https://www.easify.co.uk/Help/finance_payment_plans_overview
Click here to learn more about the new facility to specify Purchase Types as VATable or non-VATable.
https://www.easify.co.uk/Help/options_purchases_purchase_types
Regards - Richard (Easify Developer)