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Making Tax Digital: Are you aware of the changes to the Government Gateway?

Louise Hastings

Making Tax Digital is fast approaching; therefore it is important for mandated businesses with taxable turnover of £85,000+ start preparing for the switch over in April 2019.   The first VAT period affected is the period which begins after 1 April 2019.

Many businesses have now got their MTD ready solution in place, but some are still unaware the change is coming.  Despite numerous letters and communications from HMRC, there still appears to be gaps in peoples’ knowledge regarding the change, one question in particular, with what happens with regards to filing the return. 
You might be wondering how HMRC will know that you are ready for Making Tax Digital and filing your VAT returns digitally? 

To do this, you are required to sign up to MTD with HMRC and create a new Business Tax Account (BTA) (separate to your Government Gateway).  Once created the BTA will be used to send businesses notifications to file and provide a view of their VAT returns.  If your VAT returns are going to be submitted by an agent, then this step can be avoided, the agent will do this for you and the journey to MTD will only require the validation of an email address.

Businesses can sign up for making tax digital here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sign-up-for-making-tax-digital-for-vat

Timing of creation of the BTA is critical as once you create your digital account, you will no longer be able to submit your VAT returns through the Government Gateway.  Once you have opted into the making tax digital service you cannot then opt out again.

Please do not create your digital account until you have submitted your last allowed return through the government gateway or you wish to start submitting your returns through the digital account earlier than required.

To create your new digital account, you will need:
•    Your Government Gateway user ID and password
•    Your VAT registration number.

The government has produced step-by-step videos as to how businesses can sign up for MTD, you can view these here.

If you still have questions or need guidance on how to prepare for Making Tax Digital, please do not hesitate to contact our cloud accounting team.

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