Professional firms - Making Tax Digital for VAT

In our webinar earlier this month around 60% of the 350 attendees said that they were either “under prepared” or “hadn’t yet started” their preparations for the new rules. Given that the new rules are likely to require changes to existing VAT compliance processes and/or the purchase of new software, firms need to review their position as soon as possible as many will need to take active steps to be compliant by the deadline.

What's changing?

During 2019 all firms with a taxable turnover above the compulsory VAT registration threshold of £85,000 will have to keep their VAT records digitally and submit their VAT data to HMRC through compatible software. Depending on the complexity of a firm’s arrangements, the effective date for the change to MTD will either be 1 April 2019 or 1 October 2019.

How Crowe can help

We have already assisted a number of professional firms by carrying out a MTD “health-check” to assess their readiness for MTD and to help them understand how it will affect their processes. Our VAT team has many years’ experience of VAT compliance processes and using technology to improve the efficiency of work flows.

We will meet with you to understand and assess your current VAT compliance processes and the changes required to comply with the new rules. During our initial assessment we would discuss the following with you:

• how the sources of data are used to produce your VAT returns
• the quality of the information being generated and reported to HMRC
• opportunities for automation and other improvements to VAT-related processes
• the gaps between what you do now and the processes required with effect from next year
• our recommendations for MTD compliance
• what manual adjustments should be made in relation to your VAT returns (for example bad debt relief on fees which clients have not settled)
• the impact of potential future developments in the MTD requirements.

After the meeting we will provide you with a written summary of what action needs to be taken to be MTD compliant as well as our recommended next steps. 

Other information

A recording of our most recent webinar in which we focused on practical actions organisations should be taking to comply with the new MTD requirements is available HERE. The polling questions helped attendees to gauge how they compare to their peers and it was striking that around 60% were “feeling underprepared” and less than 3% were “fully prepared”. There is still time for firms to review their position and take the steps needed to comply with the new rules.

For more information, or to arrange for one of our VAT specialists to visit you to carry out a MTD readiness review for your firm, please speak to your usual Crowe contact.