House of Lords committee call for MTD delay

badmemory

What I would really like to know is what help is there going to be for a self-employed VATable person, who whilst he can read emails struggles to send one? Is he really going to have to do this? Are we going to have to have a similar performance as Auto Enrollment was when it was just too difficult so he got rid of his employees? Just for everyone to enjoy, he is 3 years behind filing his VAT returns already & pays 15% extra on every one.


And just to add, if I mention this he just shrugs. I do wonder why I worry though.

00ec25

badmemory wrote: »

What I would really like to know is what help is there going to be for a self-employed VATable person, who whilst he can read emails struggles to send one? Is he really going to have to do this? Are we going to have to have a similar performance as Auto Enrollment was when it was just too difficult so he got rid of his employees? Just for everyone to enjoy, he is 3 years behind filing his VAT returns already & pays 15% extra on every one.


And just to add, if I mention this he just shrugs. I do wonder why I worry though.

if the 15% surcharge is less than the cost of paying a bookkeeper to do his VAT for him then he is winning for as long as it takes him to sort himself out and revert to no surcharges


if it isn't, then he has no one to blame but his own idiocy

badmemory

He has a free bookkeeper but I can't force him to file VAT although his self assessment is up to date. I know he won't pay for software. He loathes HMRC with a passion since they investigated him over 20 years ago & sat in his office for a few weeks & followed him wherever he went. Result - they repaid about £20 he'd overpaid.

chrismac1

One option to try which is very low-cost, probably free, is just to shove any old credible numbers into the boxes and press submit using any of the software options which are becoming avalable to do that in a "compliant" way.


Let's face it, every January the HMRC system totally grinds to a halt with self-assessment. Whereas in MTD, if done at transaction level, the data volume is much greater. HMRC simply are not a competent enough tax authority to deal with this, not by miles.


So one option is simply to tick the box and keep under the radar. Personally I don't see that it is reasonable for HMRC to expect any business to incur a single penny of extra cost in either new software or book-keeping / accountancy fees for this load of drivel they are forcing through at gunpoint.


I have a feeling that quite a few Tribunal judges are going to see it that way, too, when we reach that stage in a couple of years' time.

Ambiss

Does Free agent Allow to submit Vat returns through the software?

Pennywise

Ambiss wrote: »

Does Free agent Allow to submit Vat returns through the software?

Yes it does

00ec25

Ambiss wrote: »

Does Free agent Allow to submit Vat returns through the software?

yes it does.
(not aware of any cloud accounting systems that don't to be honest)

You can also compare what it would cost you on the flat rate scheme, with what it would cost on the standard scheme, by the press of one button so can track from quarter to quarter whether you want to abandon the flat rate system for the next 12 months or not. Assuming of course you know whether you do or don't have a VAT receipt for each transaction, as the "auto" VAT function is all to easy to leave switched on for each expense category, but the system has no idea what paperwork you have in reality.
The default VAT setting for each category then claims, or does not claim, VAT on all transactions under that expense category eg: travel = no vat, accommodation and meals = 20% VAT. Take 1 second to think about the latter, and you'll see why it is much better not to use the auto function, but to manually select the correct VAT value at time of input of each transaction.

that said FreeAgent is, in my experience, best suited for the type of client it was designed for - "simple" contractors with limited range of expenditure categories