Hi, There was a change in my office address because of which HMRC site (old - before MTD) did not have an option to submit returns for the Period Jan 2020 to Dec 2020. While I was able to submit returns for periods after that till date using Quickfile. After several follow ups HMRC have now enabled submission for that period. While Quickfile connects to HMRC and shows this msg:
“Prepare” button for that period, the next screen does not allow me to enter any data for that old period. The error is “You have a saved VAT Return that overlaps this period ending Sep 2023. Please rollback any overlapping any VAT returns before proceeding.”
Submitting this period is important as HMRC owes me a few thousand on this return. Can you please help resolve this issue. Will Bridging option help? Any other method to submit the return. Thanks for your help.
What did you do for the 2020 returns, are they recorded in QuickFile at all, even if you weren’t able to submit them online?
If not then there’s a good chance that all your 2020 numbers were already included in your first return for 2021: when you prepare a VAT return in QuickFile it will include all items (sale/purchase invoices if you’re on accrual accounting, customer and supplier payments if you’re on cash accounting) that are
dated on or before the last day of the quarter you’re filing, and
dated on or after your “VAT start date” from your QuickFile settings, and
not already accounted for in a previous return that QuickFile is aware of
In particular note point 2 - the start date of the quarter is irrelevant, QuickFile goes back as far as it can up to your configured start date and includes everything that has not already been included in a prior return. This is by design as it means that if you discover after submitting a return that there was an invoice/purchase/payment that falls within that quarter but you hadn’t entered it in QuickFile, then you can enter it now with its correct date (during the previous quarter) and it will be accounted for automatically at the first opportunity.
But it means that if you submit quarter N and haven’t already submitted quarter N-1 (or at least “saved” it in QuickFile, even if it wouldn’t let you submit online), then all the N-1 items will be included in the totals for return N. So the first thing you need to do is check that this hasn’t happened.
Assuming you have got “saved” returns in QuickFile for the 2020 quarters and it’s just that they were not sent to HMRC, then you can submit them now, but QuickFile has an unbreakable rule (baked into the design of the software) that VAT returns can only be done in chronological order - if you want to go back and submit an earlier return after you’ve already submitted later ones then the only option is to roll back all the returns after the target period, then submit the target period, then re-save the subsequent returns to bring you up to date. So the procedure you’ll have to go through is:
starting with your most recent return ending Sep 2023, make a note of all the box values on that return, then “roll back”. Then do the same with Jun 2023, Mar 2023, etc. until you’re back to the start of 2020 - the only un-rolled-back returns left should be those up to the end of 2019
submit your four returns for 2020 in the normal way, but keep note of any differences between the box values for the returns you originally saved and those it calculates now for the new submission. They may well be the same but there might be some differences if you had any backdated late entries as I describe above.
go into the VAT settings are on QuickFile and switch the HMRC account drop-down to disable online filing
now go through all the 2021, 2022 and 2023 returns in order from oldest to newest, re-saving each one before you move to the next. If the values QuickFile calculates for any box are different from what you originally submitted then make manual adjustments to correct it, and keep note of what those adjustments were.
once you’ve saved all your returns up to Sep 2023 then go back to the settings and turn online filing back on.
add up the total net adjustments (if any) that you had to make to each box across all the 2020-2023 returns
When you come to submit your next return for the last quarter of 2023 you’ll need to apply these net adjustments to each box in reverse, i.e. if the net effect of all your adjustments to box 1 came to +£12 then your next return needs to adjust box 1 by -£12 to balance it out.
Thanks Ian for this info. We only started using Quickfile as part of MTD in 2022. So there was no prior info entered/available in quickfile. So 2020 returns were not submitted. So my understanding of the solution is that:
I switch off online filing.
I roll back all the submitted returns so far.
I enter 2020 purchases and sales.
Then submit 2020 returns (please note HMRC has opened only 1 entry for 2020 missing period - not 4 quarters). Re-save all returns after 2020.
Turn on Online filing option (to ensure readiness for current period submission).
It will be great if you can confirm the steps once again. Thanks a ton for your timely help.
Rollback all returns starting with the latest and working back over.
Ensure your vat filing start date is set to 01/10/2019 in the vat settings.
Enter your transactions for 1 Oct 2019 - 31 Dec 2020 then create and submit the return.
Turn off online filing in your vat settings (set the HMRC account to “No electronic filing”).
Enter and save a return for each period you submitted right up to date (ensuring figures match what was submitted, make adjustments if necessary).
Turn electronic filing back on (undo step 4)
Do the below for your next return as @ian_roberts suggests
Add up the total net adjustments (if any) that you had to make to each box across all the 2020-2023 returns
When you come to submit your next return for the last quarter of 2023 you’ll need to apply these net adjustments to each box in reverse, i.e. if the net effect of all your adjustments to box 1 came to +£12 then your next return needs to adjust box 1 by -£12 to balance it out.