HMRC Announcement on Making Tax Digital

If you are using our Nolan Cloud Services VAT Submission product for Making Tax Digital, we wanted to make you aware of recent announcements made by HMRC that may have an impact on how you submit your VAT return.

Dates have now been announced for when businesses will be required to have ‘Direct Digital Accounting Application Links’ in place between their software programs for submitting their VAT return.

Nolan Cloud Services has two methods of submitting your VAT return to HMRC; a ‘Direct Digital Accounting Application Link’ from Microsoft Dynamics GP and ‘Bridging’ via Excel/CSV. The HMRC announcements mean that you will no longer be able to upload and submit your VAT return to HMRC from an Excel or CSV file through Nolan Cloud Services VAT Submission via the ‘Bridging’ method. This ‘Bridging’ process was put in place by HMRC for the first year of mandation as a “soft landing period” to allow businesses time to implement the appropriate digital accounting application links and software which is now required. Nolan Cloud Services ‘Direct Digital Accounting Application Link’ to Microsoft Dynamics GP will now need to be used going forward.

Please see below the key dates and deadlines.:

  • VAT period starting on or after 1st April 2019 – you will have until your first VAT return period starting on or after 1st April 2020 to put digital links in place.
  • VAT period starting on or after 1st October 2019 – you will have until your first VAT return period starting on or after 1st October 2020 to put digital links in place.

These dates can vary depending on the nature of your business e.g. Not for Profit, Charities etc. Please check with HMRC for your key dates and deadlines.

Nolan Cloud Services VAT Submission can submit VAT returns as a ‘Digital Accounting Application Link’ to HMRC through Microsoft Dynamics GP. To do this, you will require Microsoft Dynamics GP2015 or above and have VAT Daybook set up. All transactions with a VAT implication must be posted with a Tax Detail ID, this includes General Ledger Journals. Please contact us today if you have any queries or to find out more information on how to go about setting up your system correctly.

If you do not use Microsoft Dynamics GP as your accounting software, your software will need to have a ‘Direct Digital Accounting Application Link’ in place to allow you to submit your VAT return to HMRC. We would advise that you contact your account manager/supplier of your accounting software to ensure that they will have the appropriate updates in place to allow you to comply with these new HMRC requirements.

If you have any questions on the above, please do get in contact with us to discuss the options available.