What is the simplest MTD software / option?

[Tracklover]

Hi all,

I am a sole trader, and for the last 15 years I have done manual tax returns. Literally just tallied up my income and expenditure in Windows Notepad, tallied them up, entered the totals on HMRC and paid my tax.

Now MTD is here, I thought I'd try Xero. It's mind boggling. I assumed it would process most things for me, but all the reconcilliation, codes, balancing various figures isn't something I feel at home with.

Is there any way I can do my "old skool" calculations, drop them into a simple app, and have that talk to HMRC? Something as simple as possible.

Thankyou

[Ham_and_Jam]

You need MTD bridging software.

Use a simple Excel spreadsheet to calculate your submission totals, then link the cells into the bridging software. It’s pretty simple.

Costs are approximately about £30 / year on subscription.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hmrc%20bridging%20...

[Mr Pointy]

Ham_and_Jam said:

You need MTD bridging software.

Use a simple Excel spreadsheet to calculate your submission totals, then link the cells into the bridging software. It s pretty simple.

Costs are approximately about £30 / year on subscription.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hmrc%20bridging%20...

It's not as straightforward as MTD VAT bridging where you just link cells to Boxes 1-9. You need to charge or code income & expenses to the right HMRC category & then maintain the cumulative totals over the five submissions - which is trickier if you are doing MTD VAT as well. Then you need to bring in all the manual adjustments for the fifth submission (any bank or savings interest earned, CGT etc).

OP you could try Vitaltax but I wasn't too impressed with their understanding of spreadsheets or look at TaxCalc or Freeagent which some posters like. I'm down the Xero road because that is what my accountant wants to use but it's not fantastic. The one big advantage that it does have is that there are hundreds of free videos online to help guide you through anything you don't understand.

[Steve H]

MTDsorted do a free spreadsheet for this stuff although I haven’t tried it out yet, I do my MTD VAT through them FOC and am hoping to do the same for MTD tax. How this stuff is supposed to coordinate with vat and the annual return whilst still being maintainable by the punter I have no idea.

[Elderly]

Steve H said:

MTDsorted do a free ………………. I do my MTD VAT through them .

Looking at their site, does it appear that you can manually put your
box 1-9 figures into their bridging software without having to create a csv file?

If so, doesn’t that negate the whole point of MTD bridging software for VAT?

[Steve H]

Elderly said:

Steve H said:

MTDsorted do a free . I do my MTD VAT through them .

Looking at their site, does it appear that you can manually put your
box 1-9 figures into their bridging software without having to create a csv file?

If so, doesn t that negate the whole point of MTD bridging software for VAT?

Are you really suggesting there is a point to all this?

[Tracklover]

Thankyou all

[Mr Pointy]

Steve H said:

Elderly said:

Steve H said:

MTDsorted do a free . I do my MTD VAT through them .

Looking at their site, does it appear that you can manually put your
box 1-9 figures into their bridging software without having to create a csv file?

If so, doesn t that negate the whole point of MTD bridging software for VAT?

Are you really suggesting there is a point to all this?

What do you mean?

[beedj]

I can recommend MTD Companion bridging software - I have no affiliation with them but have just completed my Q1 submissions for each of sole trader and property, and my wife’s for property. Extremely simple - downloaded their template spreadsheets in excel format (one for sole trader, one for property), copied these into my existing excel workbooks as new sheets, then populated this new sheet by copying the relevant values from my original sheets in the same workbook, using the basic '=' formula so no rekeying of data at any point.

Then open the relevant submission section in the MTD-C app (I'm using MacOS version) eg Q1 Sole Trader, then run the macro in their worksheet by clicking the big 'submit now' button, and literally seconds later my HMRC account was showing my MTD first submission completed

A few other points…
Modest cost
Your data is not stored or hosted by MTD-Companion, my understanding is that MTD-C just 'passes it through' to HMRC when you make the submission
Supports multiple users for no extra cost (simply sign in to the app with different NI numbers)
Support - I needed to ask a question (which was more related to HMRC rules rather than the app itself) so I submitted a query from within the app and had a email response within 30 minutes. No chatbot, no pointing me at faq's or knowledge base or forums, just a personal and friendly response in plain English, and I was able to continue the conversation with the same individual via email until my query was fully answered

[Penny Whistle]

I've been using VitalTax as an add-in to my existing Excel spreadsheets for a couple of years now. £20pa IIRC and easy to use.