Making Tax Digital

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  • AbbieCadabra
    AbbieCadabra Posts: 1,707 Forumite
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    what free bridging software are people planning on using?

    Avalara is on the HMRC list of approved, but doesn't appear to be available to download at the moment.
    123sheets is on offer at £20+vat per annum
    had an email from NatWest yesterday advising freeagent is available free to all customers, but that's a full accounts package I think? which I don't want
  • neilsedaka
    neilsedaka Posts: 396 Forumite
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    AbbieCadabra wrote: »
    what free bridging software are people planning on using?

    "Tax Optimiser". See my post #27.
  • kevin_grey
    kevin_grey Posts: 13 Forumite
    AbbieCadabra wrote: »
    what free bridging software are people planning on using?

    Avalara looks good and appears to free, all of the 'free' software actually requires some sort of payment, approx £30-£100 per year. The only true free software is what I wrote for myself KVAT can be found on Git Hub under kavina-systems/MTD
    try / use it if you want there is no installation and you can try it out using the HMRC developers sandbox
  • AbbieCadabra
    AbbieCadabra Posts: 1,707 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    neilsedaka wrote: »
    "Tax Optimiser". See my post #27.

    thanks, looked back on your post & whilst that all might seem straightforward to you, it looks way above my very basic understanding so think i'll have to pass.
    kevin_grey wrote: »
    AbbieCadabra wrote: »
    what free bridging software are people planning on using?

    Avalara looks good and appears to free, all of the 'free' software actually requires some sort of payment, approx £30-£100 per year. The only true free software is what I wrote for myself KVAT can be found on Git Hub under kavina-systems/MTD
    try / use it if you want there is no installation and you can try it out using the HMRC developers sandbox

    thanks, your info quoted here
    , again, way above my basic level & i'd have no idea how to use this.
  • neilsedaka
    neilsedaka Posts: 396 Forumite
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    @kevin grey, I did not see your solution in the list of approved MTD/HMRC software?
  • kevin_grey
    kevin_grey Posts: 13 Forumite
    neilsedaka wrote: »
    @kevin grey, I did not see your solution in the list of approved MTD/HMRC software?

    i know, I'm not sure why, the list of vendors does not seem very long, the application was approved on the 28th Feb and I filed my own VAT return on the 5th March using the app. You cant do anything until the HMRC SD team approve and assign your application a set of keys
  • kevin_grey
    kevin_grey Posts: 13 Forumite
    macawboy wrote: »
    I am thinking of doing the same, so basically you can carry on as normal filling in the 9 boxes
    until April 2020 .If you filled them in manually how would they tell that you have not copied and pasted them?
    They wont know, however you will required to keep electronic records and if ever investigated provide your electronic records.

    Regards
    Kevin
  • kevin_grey
    kevin_grey Posts: 13 Forumite
    macawboy wrote: »
    I am a sole trader Green Grocer and all my sales from the till are cash and all zero rated.
    I am above the threshold so am currently registered for vat and get vat back on fuel and other things.
    I do all my book keeping on a simple ledger and fill in the relevant boxes manually on my quarterly VAT return.
    I am old school 65 years of age and although i get by using a computer i am not that good with the use of spread sheets and Excel.
    I use an accountant for my tax return but with limited amount of spare cash i did not want to pay him to do my vat returns.
    Any help in recommending a cost effective software to suit my business would be much appreciated.
    Thanks in advance
    Steve

    You will have to go digital at some point, spreadsheets can be very simple like paper ledgers. I have written software for VAT submissions that looks like the manual method you use now (no spreadsheet required until 01/04./2020). If you email me a screenshot of your ledger (a blank one!) I will put together a simple spreadsheet (using a free version using WPS or Libre office) as a demonstration

    Kevin
  • BorderCollie18
    BorderCollie18 Posts: 3 Newbie
    neilsedaka wrote: »
    I am still using Quicken 2000 UK and Excel 2000 on a Windows 10 desktop PC. I needed a solution to bridge to Making Tax Digital - VAT. Tax Optimiser appears to be that solution. The cost is zero/free. Tax Optimiser is listed in HMRC "VAT compatible software – available now" table at

    .........
    1. Open a free account at Tax Optimiser .........
    2. Enter your business details into that account
    3. HMRC > VAT Settings
    4. Select Tax Optimiser as the Software Template, and note the cell references that will be used
    5. HMRC > VAT Returns in Tax Optimiser
    6. Click the second link in the Period column
    7. Download the example spreadsheet offered in the right hand pane
    8. In Quicken, create a VAT Summary Report
    9. 'Print' that report to a "Tab-delimited Disk File", which will have the file extension .txt
    10. Open that .txt file in Notepad
    11. Copy and paste the contents into the second tab of the Excel spreadsheet mentioned above
    12. Link the nine cells required by normal VAT Returns to the correct nine cells in the VAT tab
    13. Follow your nose to 'submit' a trial submission - that does not actually get sent to HMRC

    That all worked for me. Having done it once I can't backtrack and do steps 7 and 11 onwards again without creating another Tax Optimiser account, so some of those steps may not be absolutely accurate. But you should get the drift.

    I was fascinated to come across your post which I arrived at after doing a random Google search for bridging software & Quicken 2000, not expecting to get any results at all!
    I was seriously considering just deregistering for VAT and closing the business as I'm very near to retirement and there is no way I'm going to signup for this ludicrous 'recurring revenue' software scam whereby you 'rent' your software while forced into a bloody headlock by Intuit (QB) or whomever. I just refuse to use recurring revenue software - period!!
    I haven't tried your method yet but it looks viable for the short term although my understanding is that pasting data from one application to another will be against HMRC's rules in the future.
    Anyway come what may, like you I will be using Quicken 2000 for a while longer so just wanted to ask if you had successfully submitted a VAT return by the method you listed and/or whether you had any further experiences to share? Many thanks.
  • neilsedaka
    neilsedaka Posts: 396 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    BorderCollie18 wrote: »
    Anyway come what may, like you I will be using Quicken 2000 for a while longer so just wanted to ask if you had successfully submitted a VAT return by the method you listed and/or whether you had any further experiences to share? Many thanks.

    Having completed a successful trial run with Tax Optimiser, I will not do any more until after I have submitted my last manual VAT return to the HMRC website which will be May 2019 for the period Feb-Apr. I will not actually need to run Tax Optmiser for real until August 2019.
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