It may well be, I think we’d need to discuss this in more detail with HMRC. For now I have referred this to an engineer.
I don’t think we’ll get a quick resolution on this, so I would suggest pulling the figures from QF and keying them into the VAT Online gateway. Don’t forget to submit the return on QF (without submitting to HMRC) to lock down the invoices.
Thanks Glenn. Will do.
I was not able to speak to HMRC on this. Was on hold for half hour so gave up.
Hi Glenn
I have another client, who is deregistering for VAT, so was wondering if the issue of FINAL date has been resolved, or if there has been any progress on this issue.
Many thanks
Sameera
Here is the response from HMRC:
The period in the submission must relate to an open period on our records and only by the customer viewing his account online Send a VAT Return: When to do a VAT Return - GOV.UK or contacting the Online Services Helpdesk (0300 200 3600) will he know what the correct period is.
Sorry that I can’t assist any further.
So basically unless we know what that period ID should be we can’t really make any changes at our end. Perhaps you could look at the client’s online gateway and let me know what period shows for that account?
Hi Glenn, please see screenshots below. Personally i feel that its the period ID i.e. FINAL that is different from usual VAT return period IDs, and the form type is FINAL…usual VAT returns have VAT100 as form type.
If these two can be implemented in QF then the user can put in the PERIOD START DATE and PERIOD END DATE.
(see previous screenshots on this thread as well).
So in reply to HMRC’s reply to you, yes indeed - the dates for the open period can only be put in by the user. (its the FINAL period and FINAL form type that the user on QF can not enter).
These dates can be different for all users i.e. if you see this one below its actually going backwards i.e. 30th Sept - 1st Oct.
This is just my view, i don’t know how it all works in the background to develop or structure it. …
When VAT returns are submitted to HMRC over the electronic gateway we never send start or end dates (i.e. the ones specified in QF), just period IDs. HMRC then look up the range based on the ID.
I would imagine that in the case of final returns we simply set the period ID to “FINAL”. We can easily add a checkbox to the return submission form to allow users to identify final returns. I’m not sure when you need to submit this return by but it would likely take 3-5 days to get this implemented on our side.
That will be great Glenn, thanks.
I have time to submit it,s o can wait till early next week.
It will be good to test a live/actual submission 
The work is actually done, so we hope to get it live today. I will let you know when it’s ready.
We now have a check box for marking a VAT return as FINAL.
Please let me know how you get on.
thanks Glenn, I will look at it this evening and let you know
Hi Glenn, please see message below. I am unable to hit submit on QF. (please delete my previous post as it was showing client details - sorry)
Also got this message when i tried to download the calculations.
Weird, but HMRC do issue final VAT returns with reverse dates. This one is. See previous screenshots to check. Is there anyway we can remove this restriction as well?
How can you have a VAT return start date that is after the end date? It doesn’t make sense.
That’s bizarre, but nothing surprises me with HMRC.
It doesn’t really make any difference, as I mentioned before we don’t send dates to HMRC only period IDs. You should enter into QF the actual date range of the final VAT return period.
thanks Glenn
In the first screenshot, the error message from QF was that the period ID was wrong. I ticked the final VAT return box… so wondering if there is still an issue with the FINAL period at your end.
In the second screenshot, QF’s own error message was that the start date cannot be before the period end date, so i suppose QF will need the user to allow weird date ranges sometimes (as in this particular one!).
Both errors in your screenshot stem from the fact you have a start date that is after the end date, although admittedly the second error text is wrong on our side (that will be corrected).
We cannot allow weird date ranges like this, how will QF know which items to include in the return?
I totally understand. I will submit this directly on HMRC website. I do have another deregistration coming up next week which I think will have normal dates. We can try it out then .
Many thanks for all the help on this one.
How did you derive the figures to enter into HMRC? What date range did you set on QuickFile for the final return figures?
