MTD - Vat Software

[red_slr]

Anyone have any suggestions for vat software?
Our version of sage is not compatible by the sounds of things and don't really want to spend £500+ on software just to pay the VAT!
Are there any free tools which work well?

[PurpleMoonlight]

https://www.absoluteexcelvatfiler.co.uk/pages/abso...

https://www.taxcalc.com/businessVAT?utm_source=Pur...

[ozzuk]

We file monthly and are looking at an automated spreadsheet offering from PWC, less than £200. Rumour has it in 2020 it will need to come from your ERP.

[Eric Mc]

Not a rumour.

[plasticpig]

Eric Mc said:

Not a rumour.

Yes it is a rumour. From 2020 you cannot use cut and paste. This is no problem for Sage users as they can export the VAT Return as either an Excel File or CSV file and import this file into the bridging software. So no need for cut and paste.

Even if you can't export the return to an Excel or CSV file then it's still possible to get the information required by using a PDF printer driver. I am not aware of any product running under Windows where you can't print a VAT Return.

[Hammer67]

plasticpig said:

Yes it is a rumour. From 2020 you cannot use cut and paste. This is no problem for Sage users as they can export the VAT Return as either an Excel File or CSV file and import this file into the bridging software. So no need for cut and paste.

Even if you can't export the return to an Excel or CSV file then it's still possible to get the information required by using a PDF printer driver. I am not aware of any product running under Windows where you can't print a VAT Return.

I use Sage, it does my VAT in it's entirety, calculates, populates the return, transmits it to HMRC. I don't cut and paste anything. Sage told me that as long as I'm using the latest version I don't have to do anything for MTD.

Am I missing something here?

[plasticpig]

Hammer67 said:

I use Sage, it does my VAT in it's entirety, calculates, populates the return, transmits it to HMRC. I don't cut and paste anything. Sage told me that as long as I'm using the latest version I don't have to do anything for MTD.

Am I missing something here?

Nope. I was referring to Sage users who are not using the latest version and don't want to pay to upgrade.

[Hammer67]

plasticpig said:

Hammer67 said:

I use Sage, it does my VAT in it's entirety, calculates, populates the return, transmits it to HMRC. I don't cut and paste anything. Sage told me that as long as I'm using the latest version I don't have to do anything for MTD.

Am I missing something here?

Nope. I was referring to Sage users who are not using the latest version and don't want to pay to upgrade.

Righto, thanks. Pay to upgrade? I didn't/don't/never have.

[plasticpig]

Hammer67 said:

Righto, thanks. Pay to upgrade? I didn't/don't/never have.

If you have a subscription or Sage Cover contract then you will receive updates. If you don't you won't. If you are using cloud based then it's all included in the subscription.

[cheekymeerkat]

Does anyone think soon enough HMRC will expect PDFs for every single Vat reclaim? or perhaps the vat number for each reclaim? Sounds like a tax man's wet dream.
They could then audit you remotely.

[Eric Mc]

cheekymeerkat said:

Does anyone think soon enough HMRC will expect PDFs for every single Vat reclaim? or perhaps the vat number for each reclaim? Sounds like a tax man's wet dream.
They could then audit you remotely.

Of course.,

[red_slr]

UK PLC want rid of small businesses IMHO. And they are getting their way.
10 years ago we had 100+ small companies on our books. We are down to about 30 now.

[WinstonWolf]

red_slr said:

Anyone have any suggestions for vat software?
Our version of sage is not compatible by the sounds of things and don't really want to spend £500+ on software just to pay the VAT!
Are there any free tools which work well?

Quickbooks, not free but very cost effective. It's saved me loads of time compared to using Sage.

[essayer]

Hope they never do ask for receipts, they’ll finally rumble that I can never remember whether things are exempt, zero rated or out of scope

[johnhemming]

cheekymeerkat said:

Does anyone think soon enough HMRC will expect PDFs for every single Vat reclaim? or perhaps the vat number for each reclaim? Sounds like a tax man's wet dream.
They could then audit you remotely.

They do this in other countries, but it is not proposed for the UK.

[Silverage]

Do you mean they would want a PDF of each invoice you were reclaiming VAT against uploading? I would be able to do this, but would begin to question the admin overhead of all this farting about. We’re already collecting the damn tax for them for free, now we’ve got to buy some software to allow us the privilege of continuing to be able to pay them.

[FunMeterAMG]

I just upgraded from Sage 50 v20 to v25. We pay for sage support as it’s an essential business software to us, at circa £1400 a year on v20. It was £1600 a year for upgrading but switching to subscription based, with full support and continuous upgrades. So the change isn’t bad and we now have lots of improved features.

Personally, just upgrade. One less thing to worry about. It’s an overhead which you can’t do much about. Everything now is subscription based.

[anonymous-user]

We were using an old version of Sage with no issues for many years, but have had to switch over to the cloud Sage solution to cover these new requirements.

[Steve H]

So for someone doing paper books what is the simplest software solution for transferring information into an acceptable format for returns?

My quarterly books take around 3 hours including submitting the return and I don't need to do any other office admin in between returns so I'm not interested in paying £1600pa!

[Eric Mc]

Switch to an Excel spreadsheet and buy some cheap bridging software.

Excel mimics manual record keeping - but makes things a lot easier.