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.