MTD deadline...

Cowabunga · Jun 6, 2019

Have you all met the VAT deadline today? Was it fun? I certainly enjoyed the conundrums presented, of acquiring Office365, creating and customising a template, acquiring and integrating the bridging software, registering it with HMRC and filling in the spreadsheet and uploading it. Done from scratch, starting this morning.

My accountant phoned late this afternoon to see how I was getting on and she seemed quite surprised that I'd done it all, as I had told her I'd be buckling down to it today and I think she had set it up for a few clients herself over the past week.

Limcrazy · Jun 6, 2019

Good job.
Hope you used free bridging software and had the satisfaction of telling your accountant that. I've mine done for April, returned and payment in the bank so now for May`s
Unfortunately this only lasts a year then have to change again.

Cowabunga · Jun 6, 2019

Yes, free bridging software which is an add-on dowloaded directly through Excel. Unfortunately I will have to pay £60 annually for Office, starting after the month's free trial ends a month from today.

Really can't see why HMRC forced his nonsense on us. What we actually upload to them is exactly what we have uploaded for quite a while.

Accountants have apparently been inundated with more paid work and they have been hiring more staff to cope. Not easy finding staff dependable and capable enough at shortish notice I imagine. Perhaps it is only a sly way for the Government to create new jobs while getting industry to pay for it? Looks very much like a job creation scheme to me. I'm not sorry to have opted out of that and done it myself.

It wasn't too bad actually and, as I said, I enjoyed working it all out and setting it up. If a 60 year old fart like me can do it, surely anyone can if they apply themselves.

stroller · Jun 6, 2019

I finished mine last week, it worked first time using my existing accounts program, and the money went in yesterday. The program only cost £90 + vat when I bought it several years ago and the up grade to MTD didn't cost anything.

kmo · Jun 6, 2019

Deadline is tomorrow for my return
7 June 2019, for the period 1 April to 30 April 2019.
Was saving it for a wet day.
went with Tax Calc VAT filer, says it works with any spreadsheet.

Cowabunga · Jun 6, 2019

kmo said:
Deadline is tomorrow for my return
7 June 2019, for the period 1 April to 30 April 2019.
Was saving it for a wet day.
went with Tax Calc VAT filer, says it works with any spreadsheet.

Wish I'd found that myself. It would have saved me £60 less the VAT annually and probably rising with inflation and currency fluctuation.

EDIT
Doesn't it cost at least £75 according to its web site? Oh well! There's very little that's totally free in this line apparently.

Highland Mule · Jun 6, 2019

Which add-on have you used @Cowabunga ?

Cowabunga · Jun 6, 2019

Highland Mule said:
Which add-on have you used @Cowabunga ?

Vital Tax, which is a free add-on accessed and downloaded directly through Excel toolbar under the ad-on tab.

Highland Mule · Jun 6, 2019

Thanks, will have a try this weekend. I have office, but not 365. Cost me £100 one off fee about five years ago - might be worth a stab if you want to avoid an annual cost.

Cowabunga · Jun 6, 2019

I have taken the opportunity to change my HMRC VAT gateway email address to an Outlook one which I had from when I mainly used Windows computers. This is so I am less likely to miss any important emails from them in the mass of Apple Mail I get daily. I could divert them into a dedicated folder in Apple Mail but I have found that system to be unreliable. Anyhow, I had to register with Office, Vital Tax, and HMRC, all with various passwords and codes, which was a bit of a faff, but it went OK and was fairly intuitive and well instructed on the screen. Authorising Vital Tax with HMRC is done through Vital Tax and dead easy and almost instant.
I tried making a spreadsheet for VAT before but tried too hard in that I attempted formulas to work out and fill cells with the VAT amount automatically. Failed miserably. This time I kept it simple and just filled in three columns manually, just like the books I kept before, only using the SUM formula to add up the columns with a formula on another sheet to import the totals. These then link with the Vital Tax entry boxes and copy automatically to send.

I think Office365 will be worth it, because it will be accessible on all my devices anywhere there is wifi or a mobile signal. I am a fan of cloud backup as well as local

Highland Mule · Jun 6, 2019

Highland Mule said:
Thanks, will have a try this weekend. I have office, but not 365. Cost me £100 one off fee about five years ago - might be worth a stab if you want to avoid an annual cost.

Turns out Mac 2011 is too old. Might have to upgrade my Excel version...

Highland Mule · Jun 7, 2019

Cowabunga said:
I have taken the opportunity to change my HMRC VAT gateway email address to an Outlook one which I had from when I mainly used Windows computers. This is so I am less likely to miss any important emails from them in the mass of Apple Mail I get daily. I could divert them into a dedicated folder in Apple Mail but I have found that system to be unreliable. Anyhow, I had to register with Office, Vital Tax, and HMRC, all with various passwords and codes, which was a bit of a faff, but it went OK and was fairly intuitive and well instructed on the screen. Authorising Vital Tax with HMRC is done through Vital Tax and dead easy and almost instant.
I tried making a spreadsheet for VAT before but tried too hard in that I attempted formulas to work out and fill cells with the VAT amount automatically. Failed miserably. This time I kept it simple and just filled in three columns manually, just like the books I kept before, only using the SUM formula to add up the columns with a formula on another sheet to import the totals. These then link with the Vital Tax entry boxes and copy automatically to send.

Mass of mail answer - I had a purge a few years ago and unsubscribed from everything possible - get very little junk mail now and don't give my permissions for emails to very many companies at all. Maybe half a dozen emails a day, and deal with them as they come in. Discipline makes it easy.

Cowabunga · Jun 7, 2019

Highland Mule said:
Turns out Mac 2011 is too old. Might have to upgrade my Excel version...

That's another advantage of 365. It is always up to date and always will be as long as subs are paid.

I get very little spam either but I do get some that I really should unsubscribe from. Rubbish from Twitter for instance is a pain, considering I never look at Twitter. Ditto Linkedin. Ebay and Amazon could do with culling too, although I do trade with them a lot.

Highland Mule · Jun 7, 2019

Cowabunga said:
That's another advantage of 365. It is always up to date and always will be as long as subs are paid.

True, but I still think I'm quids ahead. This MacBook must just be older than I realise.

Cowabunga · Jun 7, 2019

Highland Mule said:
True, but I still think I'm quids ahead. This MacBook must just be older than I realise.

I have been quids in until today, because I was quite happy using the free Libre Office suite. It did everything I wanted including opening and editing MS Office files and saving spreadsheets as MS Office files if desired. Time and tide waits for no man though.

Just yesterday my Photos album reminded me that my iMac was exactly seven years of age. It has been very well used, even for a period of years used as a television through a USB TV dongle into which a roof ariel plugged in.
Time to start budgeting for a new one I think. The price for a 27inch with 8gig RAM and 1TB Fusion drive is rather frightening.

Only · Jun 7, 2019

Did my vat return via absolute vat which cost£20 via nfu membership on june 3 and received money in the bank this am - the fastest ever

kmo · Jun 7, 2019

Cowabunga said:
Wish I'd found that myself. It would have saved me £60 less the VAT annually and probably rising with inflation and currency fluctuation.

EDIT
Doesn't it cost at least £75 according to its web site? Oh well! There's very little that's totally free in this line apparently.

TaxCalc VAT filer was £16.67 plus VAT when i bought it, Think I followed someone else link on here to find it.

essex man · Jun 7, 2019

Cowabunga said:
Have you all met the VAT deadline today? Was it fun? I certainly enjoyed the conundrums presented, of acquiring Office365, creating and customising a template, acquiring and integrating the bridging software, registering it with HMRC and filling in the spreadsheet and uploading it. Done from scratch, starting this morning.

My accountant phoned late this afternoon to see how I was getting on and she seemed quite surprised that I'd done it all, as I had told her I'd be buckling down to it today and I think she had set it up for a few clients herself over the past week.

Decided I wouldn't bother with all that and would carry on with old system as didn't believe they would turn the old portal off.
They still haven't, have submitted monthly returns for april and May so far...

Still Farming · Jun 7, 2019

Just stay under threshold.
HMRC force onto us they should supply their compatible software or Free apps.

wanton dwarf · Jun 7, 2019

essex man said:
Decided I wouldn't bother with all that and would carry on with old system as didn't believe they would turn the old portal off.
They still haven't, have submitted monthly returns for april and May so far...

If you have turnover above £85K .. you have unfortunately stuck your head over the parapet.

MTD deadline...

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