Hello Paul McF

We can see in your post you mentioned you are using pro2018,only the 2019 packages for desktop are complaint with MTD.Could you provide a screenshot showing the file vat screen in Desktop?

Emma

I scrolled and scrolled until I found this and it worked perfectly. This should be made very clear as it appears that you use the 'File VAT return' button but in fact you should go to the VAT drop down and go to file return to go through the authorisation process. THe QB folk should know this and advise all the questioners accordingly.

So I resolved the problem but only after it was made clear by Intuit help desk that Desktop Pro 2018 and earlier versions were not compatible with MTD, even though they had been compatible with the Pre-MTD option to file VAT online. So I have had to upgrade to 2020. Even my accountant didn’t know this – she runs 2018 Accountant version and I understand when she cried help, Intuit techies were able to patch her version to make it compatible. Presumably though she will now have to upgrade to Accountant 2020 to be able to read my files!

This is an entirely unnecessary saga that has clearly caused a lot of customers grief at the stressful point in the business cycle, the VAT deadline. Intuit has some serious questions to answer regarding its performance and customer service:

1.Why are we being forced to upgrade to be compliant. There’s almost nothing in 2019 or 2020 that wasn’t in versions back to 2016, so why didn’t Intuit upgrade these to be compatible with MTD?

1. if we were to be forced to upgrade, why weren’t we told; instead we were just left to find that filing VAT online suddenly no longer worked?
2. and the error message we were given was completely unintelligible.

Sorry Intuit but severe black marks for the above utter incompetence.

Hi @PaulMcF,

Thank you for voicing out your concern, along with a detailed explanation you provided with QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT), and MTD.

As mentioned in this thread, you're required to have an active subscription of the QBDT 2019 version (or the latest, which is 2020) to submit VAT through MTD. QBDT versions 2017, and 2018 can still submit VAT through the previous e-file process.

Additional info about your query is in this article: QuickBooks Desktop VAT e-filing & Making Tax Digital. 

If you have other questions, feel free to leave a comment below. I'll be sure to get back to you.

Help Ryan I think you are missing my point. We are legally obliged  to register for MTD.

1.Intuit did not tell us that filing via versions 2018 and earlier would no longer work even we registered 

2. When you try and fail,  the bizarrely-worded error

message gives no clue for the reason for failure

3. I think it pernicious of intuit not to have simply provided updates to 2018 and earlier versions to enable online VAT filing to continue to work.  
4. To be confronted with this at the filing deadline was extremely stressful. Intuit has completely failed to manage this in a sympathetic and customer- friendly manner.

Hi I have DESK TOP QB - just so you know ... 

> I had this problem - The error was “The submission of this document has failed due to departmental specific business logic in the body tag” - even though I had done last quarters vat, 3 months ago, this msg poped up again since the HMRC website would not link to my system - ie it did not recognise me  - so i had to resubmit my QB system - by "change user ...
....... so this is how I did the vat submission
...... >>> 

Using top menu bar on DESKTOP Quickbooks  > hit VAT , then  you get a two sided screen --- we are a co. over £85K turnover  - so I used  that side of the screen …..
I CHANGED USER  by hitting the change user button.... this linked to the hmrc website using my usual UK gov login  . After it had linked and given me access , and sent a one time password to my mobile - (which i'd previously setup)

> Once done - I then I hit the BLUE BUTTON ..”FILE VAT MTD” – this linked with HMRC and gave a alist of vat-submission-quarters to submit … so choose the right one! ….and go  .. eventually this threw me onto the usual white page of QB with all the 1-8 vat box figures... last of all in the bottom right corner

click FILE VAT .. and it runs , while linking to HMRC.

I hope that helps - All the best!

Using Quickbooks Pro for desktop 2020

This is driving me mad! Correctly registered for MTD entered data last quarter fine no problems. Do it again this quarter and get the message.....Filing VAT return error "the submission of this document has failed due to departmental specific business logic in the body tag" Plus email from HMRC reporting that my return couldn't be accepted as it failed HMRC data checks. What on earth do I do?

Welcome to the thread, @Boatlamps1. I appreciate you providing details. 

To ensure you'd able to file VAT return, I recommend contacting our Customer Support Team. Since they have the specific tools to check your account and investigate the root cause of the issue. 

To contact us, here's how:

1. Click the Help menu and choose QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Select Contact us at the bottom.
3. Enter a brief description of the issue and click Continue.
4. Select Talk to a Specialist.

If you have any follow up questions, let me know by commenting below. I'm happy to answer it for you. Take care.

Thank you for your response. Ii am trying to file the return for the quarter ending 31st October 2021.

Terence Firrell.

I can let you have my registration number.

Terence Firrell

pp. Terence Firrell Ltd

Thank you for your response. Ii am trying to file the return for the quarter ending 31st October 2021.

Terence Firrell.

I can let you have my registration number.

Terence Firrell

pp. Terence Firrell Ltd

Emma,

I have been submitting the vat returns on this basis for some years. I spoke to HMRC 90 minutes ago.

I confirmed my vat number and told HMRC the problem with the latest return. HMRC told me it is a software problem.

Terence

Hi Terence, for security, any personal information such as VAT registration no. will be redacted when entered on the Community - we'd be grateful if you could reach our live chat support with this information so that they can check the status of your account in the background for any specific error when submitting. 

I had this problem about a year ago.

While I can't precisely remember the issue, I think it was something to do with trying to submit a VAT return from QuickBooks Accountant for a Company which has registered to submit its own VAT returns.  QuickBooks Accountant assumes its users have registered as the Agent for all client companies and submits the VAT returns via the Agency route..

What I did was register a new Admin user on the company and then from a different Microsoft User profile open QuickBooks Online (not Accountant) and then submit the returns from there (linking to HMRC first if not already linked).

Thanks for joining this conversation, @davidw3d.

I'm here to lend a hand so you can file your VAT on time.

We can check whether your VAT number isn't being recognized due to a browser issue. If the issue persist after completing several steps, we recommend contacting Support. They can check your setup and check the cause of the issue using a screen-sharing application.

Let's log in to QuickBooks in a private window and enter your VAT number. This is a good way to start checking browser issues and this will disable the cache from saving your browsing history. If it works fine, you can go back to your regular browser and clear its cache. If not, please try other browsers to isolate the case.

To contact our Support:

1. Click on Help and choose Contact us.
2. In the description field, enter something like MTD Error Message - please check your VAT reg no.
3. Click Let's talk or Continue, depending on what you see.
4. Choose from Message an agent or Talk to a specialist.

Just in case, I'll add this article for future reference: QuickBooks Desktop VAT e-filing & Making Tax Digital.

I want to make sure everything is taken care of for you, so please let me know if you have any other issues or concerns. I'm always here to help. Have a good one!