Sage 200 and Making Tax Digital

Making Tax Digital (MTD) will fundamentally change the administration of the UK tax system and impact most UK businesses. Here’s what Sage 200 customers need to know.

What is Making Tax Digital?

Making Tax Digital is HMRC’s vision to digitalise the UK tax system. Businesses and landlords will be required to use commercial software to maintain their records and to update HMRC quarterly, starting with VAT and then moving to Corporation Tax returns.

Can my current version of Sage 200 deal with Making Tax Digital?

No, ALL customers will need to upgrade to the latest 200cloud release due out Spring 2018 to be HMRC-accredited.

It’s critical customers running older versions of 200 discuss the impact of this with us urgently as there will be hardware implications of upgrading to this version.

When will this impact my business?

From April 2019, all VAT-registered businesses with turnover above the VAT threshold will be required to maintain digital records and will need to send their VAT information to HMRC using third-party commercial software.

HMRC’s online portal will remain available to all other businesses that complete a VAT return but have turnover below the VAT threshold.

Making Tax Digital for VAT will apply to VAT-registered businesses with turnover above the VAT threshold. This includes unincorporated businesses, companies, LLPs and charities.

Businesses registered for VAT but with turnover below the VAT threshold can opt in and file their VAT information via Making Tax Digital if they wish.

What are the software requirements?

Commercial software must be able to:

• Keep records in a digital form
• Preserve digital records in a digital form
• Create a VAT return from the digital records
• Provide HMRC with VAT data on a voluntary basis
• Receive information from HMRC via the API (application programme interfaces) platform. This will allow HMRC to send ‘nudges’ to the business/agent