Everything you need to know about MTD and how having a bookkeeper helps.
Making Tax Digital (or MTD) is part of HMRC’s ongoing initiative that has been underway since April 2019 to digitalise the UK tax system. Currently, MTD is focused on VAT submission but is set to grow to include other types of tax, such as Income Tax and Corporation Tax. The most immediate of these extensions is coming up soon, when in April 2022, the current MTD VAT will become extended to include businesses.
So, what is MTD? When and how will MTD affect your business? And how should you go about paying it? We have all the answers. Getting in touch with your nearest Rosemary Bookkeeping business lets you directly contact your local bookkeeping experts, who will help support you with any bookkeeping query.
We’ve also put together a post to answer all of your most burning questions on MTD. Starting with:
What is MTD?
MTD has two core components:
- Replacement of paper-based records and a requirement for businesses and organisations (including those with property-based incomes) to keep digital accounting records.
- Using compatible software to submit tax returns and updates to HMRC – The government will be removing their current online tax services when a business registers for MTD and will require businesses and organisations to use software compliant with their API (Application Program Interfaces) to submit relevant updates and returns to HMRC instead.
MTD Timeline
- 1st April 2019: MTD has been in place since this date for the majority of VAT-registered businesses that are above the tax threshold of an £85’000 turnover or above. These included partnerships, sole traders, limited companies, non-UK businesses registered for UK VAT, and charities and trusts.
- 1st October 2019: There was a six-month deferred start date for more complex businesses.
- 1st April 2022: MTD will be mandatory for all VAT-registered businesses and organisations.
- April 2024: MTD will become mandatory for Income Tax Self-Assessment (ITSA) for those who are self-employed and/or with a property-based income if they have self-employment and/or gross rental income of over £10’000.
- April 2025: MTD ISTA becomes mandatory for general partnerships. Meaning it will now apply to corporate or ‘non-natural’ and non-limited liability partnerships with a turnover above the £10’000 threshold.
The immediate changes and how they affect your business
If, before April 2022, you were not already under the current MTD legislation, you will be required to sign up to MTD, keep digital records of VAT and submit this information to HMRC through an MTD compatible software.
It’s important to note that if your business has received an MTD exemption, this will still be in effect beyond 1st April 2022. To check if you are eligible, or apply for exemption from MTD, you can find guidance on how to do so via the HMRC website. If you’re concerned about the impact of MTD on your business, you can read more about its effects here.
MTD’s benefits:
- It can reduce or even eliminate paper-based or manual tax processes. This allows you greater accuracy in tax returns, reduces the time you spend on administration, and gives you more time to maximise your business opportunities, productivity and profitability.
- In the case that you opt to use cloud-based software, you’ll be able to see in real-time what is happening in your books and have better control over your finances, allowing you to up-to-date and well-informed business decisions.
- Using compliant digital software means that submitting information to HMRC is far simpler and less stressful.
- Some accounting software link directly with your bank account, further reducing the ‘paperwork’ and time spent filing taxes.
- Digital software provides you with real-time management information so you can see how your business is performing.
So, if you have not already done so, you need to start weighing your options for MTD compliant software.
How Rosemary Bookkeeping can help
We understand that making the jump to digital can be scary and daunting. But, it’s not as costly or difficult as it seems – especially with the help of an expert bookkeeping service like Rosemary Bookkeeping. The benefit of changing to MTD in April 2022 is that everybody else has already had around three years of experience working with it.
With a professional bookkeeper from Rosemary Bookkeeping to help you, making your tax digital is a very simple process. We have been operating MTD for VAT submissions since its inception in 2019 and know its processes inside and out. Going digital may be a scary prospect, but by using a bookkeeper, your tax may be going digital, but your bookkeeping experience isn’t. We will assist however you need to get accustomed to the software, or simply do the work for you and make the process of sending returns to HMRC straightforward. We will also send generated returns directly from the software so that you have a well-kept and organised backlog of your records.
The main drawback of digital services like Xero and QuickBooks is that they depend on your own financial knowledge and ability to work through MTD yourself. Our bookkeeping experts are trained to work digitally using MTD compliant software like Xero and QuickBooks and Sage, but are a real-life human presence that can reassure and guide you through the process, so you’re not going it alone. As Rosemary Bookkeeping is well-versed in MTD and online services, we can also offer advice on which software would be best for you, and often offer competitive prices for software subscriptions.
Additionally, we also offer an online exchange of documents, so you’ll be able to upload photos or scans of documents so that we can process them on the bookkeeping software. We also use Apps like AutoEntry or Hubdoc, which not only attach documents directly to the record on the software but also automate some bookkeeping processes – saving you valuable time and money.
To start receiving expert help and advice from your local bookkeeping experts, find your nearest Rosemary Bookkeeping business today.
