Making Tax Digital Introduction

VAT-registered businesses with a taxable turnover above the VAT threshold are required to use the Making Tax Digital service to keep records digitally and use software to submit their VAT returns from 1 April 2019.

The exception to this is a small minority of VAT-registered businesses with more complex requirements. As part of planning for the VAT pilot, HMRC continued to engage with stakeholders and listen to their concerns about business readiness for Making Tax Digital. We have made the decision to delay mandation for these customers until 1 October 2019 to ensure there is sufficient time to test the service with them in the pilot before they are mandated to join.

This means that any VAT return that starts after April 1st will need to be submitted using the Making Tax Digital platform.

For businesses that submit their VAT returns Quarterly, this means that the first VAT submission using Making Tax Digital will be due on the Following schedule :-

If you have multi-companies with a single VAT registration then the above dates will not normally apply - instead MTD will normally be applicable for the first quarter starting after the 1st October.

After submitting and paying your last VAT return on the normal platform - this will be the the final VAT return that started before the 1st April 19 - you will need to register your business for Making Tax Digital. This can be done online on the HMRC Web site by clicking on https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sign-up-for-making-tax-digital-for-vat.  You must not do this until you have made the payment for your last non-MTD VAT Return (normally on the 11th of the month the month after the period ends)

When signing up, Navigator is listed as a Software Provider under the name of "Navigator DMS"

Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email to confirm that your business is registered for Making Tax Digital.

It is essential that you check that the VAT number for your business is correctly set up for your Business.  This can be done by following the instructions here

To check that Navigator is correctly setup for Making Tax Digital, you should be able to view your VAT Obligations