What is MTD?

Making Tax Digital or "MTD" is the legislation whereby HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) made it mandatory as of April 2019 for businesses that are VAT registered with a taxable turnover above the VAT registration threshold of £85,000 to retain VAT records in a digital format and to file their VAT returns using Making Tax Digital (MTD) compatible software.

 

What is bridging software?

A bridging solution or bridging software such as Able Warton's provides a way for you to transfer your VAT information to HMRC in the required format.

The Able Warton Making Tax Digital bridging solution allows for you to import your VAT information from a spreadsheet so it can be transmitted to HMRC.

 

How do I sign up for MTD?

You will need to contact HMRC to sign up for MTD. To do this you will need your VAT Number (VRN) and your existing Government Gateway Login Credentials.

It can take up to 72 hours from registration before you receive confirmation for HMRC, once you have received this you will be able to use MTD.

There is a step by step guide available on the government website that will help you. Just remember to choose Able Warton as your bridging solution.

View the step by step guide

 

I am below the VAT threshold, do I need to sign up to MTD?

Businesses that have a taxable turnover below the VAT threshold do not have to use the MTD system, they can continue to submit VAT returns using the Government Gateway or they can choose to use MTD on a voluntarily basis.

 

How much does the Able Warton service cost?

Able Warton's Making Tax Digital VAT bridging solutions is currently FREE.

 

Why am I not receiving my confirmation/access emails?

In all the cases we have examined, the reason you have not received your email is because your provider has for some reason blocked the email.

If you are using a local client such as the Outlook phone app or Outlook on your desktop and have it setup to automatically download from your provider, for example BTConnect, BTInternet or Gmail etc, then generally they do not forward the blocked emails to your local client.

You must login onto your Web portal and view your emails from there. You will see our emails in your Junk or Spam folder. Release the emails and all future emails from us will be downloaded to your local client.

 

Why can I not submit a VAT return?

When you are redirected back to our site from the HMRC login page, you will be able to view your current VAT obligations. We do this by querying HMRC directly in real time. In some cases HMRC returns no obligations. With no obligations you cannot do a VAT return because we need a special code provided by HMRC to be attached to the return. This is why you cannot enter any values to submit a return.

Things to check:

1. Have you filled out the MTD form for HMRC?
   Please go to https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-tax-digital-for-vat and click the "Sign up for Making Tax Digital for VAT".
2. Have they sent back the confirmation email to say you have been enrolled?
   If you have not had an enrolment confirmation email then you are most likely not yet enrolled to use MTD.
3. Do you have any outstanding obligations?
   The easiest way to check this is to search your obligations using our portal. If no outstanding obligations are found then HMRC has not returned any to us and you will not be able to submit a VAT return.