Making Tax Digital what is it all about.
No doubt you would have received several communications from HMRC warning of the prospect of the Making Tax Digital Program. This means that all future VAT returns that are to be filled on the HMRC web portal
will no longer be entered manually but require a direct upload from an authorised accounts package that has an approved API link to the HMRC website. This is a drive by the HMRC to digitise the process of submitting returns so that it forces companies to use a systemic audit trail of information. Eventually it will allow HMRC to dive further into how companies prepared and present accounts so that HMRC has a better understanding of what makes up the figures that are presented which limits the possibility of companies to “manipulate figures” and match quarterly returns to Annual Account results.
Making Tax Digital for VAT.
What that means is that where before you may print off a report and type the figure into the familiar 9 boxes of the VAT return, you will now press “submit” and the figures that are in your system will upload into that section with no intrusion from a human being. It will not just be the figures for the nine boxes but all the detailed line items of each invoice so that HMRC will now have detailed overview of all the transactions that make up the final figures. The aim is to save time for the revenue as it limits the number of site visits to investigate anomies by helping businesses become more efficient in preparing accounts.
What are the options for those on Apple Mac.
For companies in a Windows environment there is a plethora of choice from Sage, Quick books etc. But for Mac users they either must use a cloud-based software such as Xero or Kashflow and that may not suit everyone’s needs due to concerns over having accounting records not held off the premises or the bandwidth is not enough to process transactions quickly (see related article). One program that has developed from the popular is “Account Edge” which includes an intuitive user-friendly interface with some powerful business functionality that incorporates the best use of the Macintosh operating environment. It incorporates then traditional accounting functions with a powerful stock module with component build traceability and time sheet activities billing for serviced based industries and an in-built payroll module for RTI. The making tax digital module will be included with the March update making it relatively easy for the HMRC upload but with a much-needed audit trail which will keep track of corrections and adjustments that may happen in between returns. The cost is less than a Xero subscription and they have improved the speed and power of the network edition for multi-users (doesn’t require a server but “transmits” access to the file from a designated Mac machine).
For those who wish to know more please press on this link contact the details on email address above. For an interactive guide to software comapatbility for your business got to our downloads section and select the “software vendor comparison Chart”.
