Accountant’s guide to setting up QuickBooks for MTD (VAT and ITSA)

• An ASA is required to submit MTD returns (VAT or ITSA) for clients. It is different from HMRC Online Services for Agents credentials, which only support legacy services.
• Only one ASA per practice is needed.
• It should be set up by the person responsible for tax or administrative matters (e.g., director, owner, lead partner).
• An ASA does not replace existing Government Gateway IDs — you will continue to need both.

To act on behalf of clients under MTD, you need to link your existing Government Gateway credentials to your ASA:

1. Sign in to your ASA.
2. Add all Government Gateway credentials your practice uses for filing VAT.
3. Copy across all client authorisations.
4. If you have multiple sets of credentials, make sure you copy them all so existing client authorities are retained.

Tip! HMRC advises adding clients to your ASA at least 72 hours before their VAT return is due (or 7 working days before if they pay by Direct Debit).

For new clients, you must request a digital handshake (authorisation) through HMRC. A digital handshake is HMRC’s way of linking your ASA to the client’s account.

1. From your ASA, select Ask a client to authorise you.
2. Your client accepts this request through their Government Gateway Business Tax Account.
3. The authorisation must be in place before you can connect QuickBooks.

During the QuickBooks authorisation process, HMRC will ask for:

Client details:

• Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR)
• National Insurance number
• Trading name and other relevant business information

Agent verification (you’ll need 2 of the following):

• Passport or driving licence
• Self Assessment data

Make sure this information is to hand, otherwise the authorisation cannot be completed.

Once your ASA and client authorisations are ready, set up MTD in QuickBooks Online:

1. Follow this link to complete the steps in product
2. Select the client you want to set up.
3. Go to Taxes.
4. Select Set up VAT (for VAT) or Set up ITSA (for Income Tax) and follow the instructions.

Note: HMRC requires you to reconnect QuickBooks to HMRC every 18 months.

You may see this error if:

• You used HMRC Online Services for Agents credentials (these are not valid for MTD).
• The client has not accepted your digital handshake request in their Government Gateway account.
• The information provided during authorisation does not match HMRC records.

To fix this:

• Always use ASA credentials when connecting QuickBooks.
• Confirm your client has approved the authorisation.
• Check you have the correct client and ID details before trying again.