Vat frs & accounting

[EMMAWHITLOCKTV]

Hi. I’m self employed with small turnover and have always used FRS for VAT. I always understood this meant I could just record total turnover and % VAT and I did not have to give detailed accounts. Has this changed? I am getting this message when I try to submit with Quick file:

Under the Making Tax Digital rules VAT returns should be supported by accounting records. This VAT consists only of adjustments and cannot be submitted to HMRC.

Can anyone help?

[QFSteve]

Hello @EMMAWHITLOCKTV

The MTD scheme HMRC brought in means you will no longer be able to store paper based records and they must be stored digitally.

You can also not just enter the figures in the boxes 1-9 on the vat return as there has to be clear digital links to the information which makes up the figures (either in MTD compliant software or a spreadsheet).

HMRC have given 2 options

• Enter all your transactions into MTD compliant software and use it to do the submission.
• Enter all your paper based transactions in a spreadsheet and use compatible bridging software to do your submission.

There are 2 ways to create a vat return.

Method 1

You either enter your invoices into QuickFile and when you generate the return the values in the boxes populate automatically. You can not just do a return made up from manual adjustments, the values in the boxes have to come from transactions you have entered.

This method if is free up to your first 1000 nominal postings in a rolling 12 month period then £60 + vat annually after that.

Or

Method 2

You have your transactions stored in a spreadsheet and you do a bridging submission.

Our Bridging Module is £60+ vat annually.
You can try this out for free and do your first submission free of charge .

If you prefer to use a spreadsheet and the Bridging Module here are the instructions - VAT Bridging

PLEASE NOTE you can not just have a spreadsheet containing values for boxes 1-9 as the whole point of the MTD system is that there is a clear digital link to your backing data/transactions.