Making Tax Digital

Alistair

Member
Livestock Farmer
My Accountant has recommended Xero and wants to set it up and give me training at a cost of £400. Do you think set up and training is needed.
£400 sounds excessive.
My accountant is going to help me out free of charge. Also whilst at Border Expo I got chatting to David Allen Accountant’s Carlisle and they said they would give me some free training if I needed help and I don’t even use them. Obviously after new business.
 

Dave79

Member
Location
N Antrim
Is the app with Quickbooks any good for taking pics and putting straight into the program. I’m on sage and use auto entry as an extra, and find it good, but it’s an extra cost, and my accountant is nudging me towards Quickbooks, saying it has the equivalent in the app? That would probably sway me to move to keep her happy, but otherwise I’d stick with what I am doing, as she says she’s not massively bothered.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Is the app with Quickbooks any good for taking pics and putting straight into the program. I’m on sage and use auto entry as an extra, and find it good, but it’s an extra cost, and my accountant is nudging me towards Quickbooks, saying it has the equivalent in the app? That would probably sway me to move to keep her happy, but otherwise I’d stick with what I am doing, as she says she’s not massively bothered.

The Xero app is ideal for doing exactly that....so I would be surprised if the Quickbooks version wasn't similar.
 
There are 3 different versions of QB Online - so beware.
@neilo alerted me with a charge of £12.50 / month. I was paying £20. So phoned and have been lowered a peg. You can go up too, if you want more faff. Time will tell if that decision was correct.

The screens alter frequently too, and even the chap helping me today, found his ‘boxes’ had all changed. 😂
So how do you think your customers feel, petal?
 

robs1

Member
I use Cirrostratus Exedra (now called VAT Direct):


Allows you to upload the correct files (from your spreadsheet system) to HMRC yourself using their API. And the basic service is free..........
That's what I use, have made my own spreadsheet based system that does the vat automatically and then end of year and from there into profit and loss, took a bit of time but once set up was easy to use, I'm too tight to pay an accountant to do tax returns
 

Massey mad

Member
As said above, use the same software as your accountant but I also recommend Xero. Its not too difficult to get you head round and if you keep on top of things the quarterly VAT submission is not a mad rush getting it done it does it as you go.
 

topground

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Somerset.
I think I have signed up for MTDsorted ( because it appears to be free) and linked it to my HMRC VAT account. No idea what happens next or how I feed information into that system . I will have a go when the next return is due and probably end up doing this one the old fashioned way then plead old age and a crap internet connection to carry on as I have been doing.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
What exactly do the gov want, do you have to give them your digitised invoices or do they still only want the same boxes filling in on some other programme?

The latter pretty much. I’m not sure how much they really have access to…..and if they did I bet they don’t have the manpower to look at it.
 

robs1

Member
What exactly do the gov want, do you have to give them your digitised invoices or do they still only want the same boxes filling in on some other programme?
This is just the start of the process, the end game is your tax return will be done the same way and if I understood it correctly you will be paying tax quarterly( Ithink it was quarterly not monthly)in real time, which is fine if you have regulars bills and income but a real pain if it's very irregular.
This was already meant to have happened but had been postponed, not sure how much detail you will have to provide though, it could be just the end of period figures or full breakdown, I guess they would use some sort of algorithm to auto check stuff, I'm not sure once you submit figures via MTD it reopens the link everytime you log in so if you make a change it does their end too. Way beyond me, but I'm sure this change is not designed to make my life easier
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
I understand that there is a timeline, from this July all VAT to be digital and next July all tax to be the same. As others say this is OK for business’s which have regular cash flows etc. but for people like farmers I am not certain how it will work
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
I understand that there is a timeline, from this July all VAT to be digital and next July all tax to be the same. As others say this is OK for business’s which have regular cash flows etc. but for people like farmers I am not certain how it will work
I don't have a problem with the gradual phase to digital. I am concerned by an increased frequency of tax returns though... tax returns are rather more complex than the VAT return, they cover far more than simply bank transactions. Tax is paid on profit not on turnover.... For starters a monthly tax return would mean having to make monthly valuation adjustments. I could easily find I owe £20,0000 tax one month and be owed £1000 back every month for the rest of the year!
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
I don't see accountants have got enough time in the year to do quarterly returns on behalf of their clients so to me that makes it a non-starter not really worth worrying about.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
I don't have a problem with the gradual phase to digital. I am concerned by an increased frequency of tax returns though... tax returns are rather more complex than the VAT return, they cover far more than simply bank transactions. Tax is paid on profit not on turnover.... For starters a monthly tax return would mean having to make monthly valuation adjustments. I could easily find I owe £20,0000 tax one month and be owed £1000 back every month for the rest of the year!
I totally agree, it is one thing the owner of Marks and Spencers calculating they sold £100,000,000 of which 20m is wages 10m is rent 30m to suppliers etc.
Completely different to a farming or my business when the bulk of your income for a year is not paid till the next
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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