MTD deadlines – understand quarterly submission dates for your clients

Have you got your head around the Making Tax Digital for VAT deadlines? We’ve highlighted the steps you need to take and flagged up the key dates to make sure your VAT-registered clients stay compliant.

Why you should act now

HMRC changed the way you can submit your VAT from April 2021, and if you’re not complying with Making Tax Digital, you’ll need to submit your client’s VAT records manually. It makes sense to start complying with MTD now to avoid spending time on manual data entry and risk making mistakes. 

By April 2022, all VAT-registered businesses will have to use MTD-compatible software to submit their VAT returns. In April 2024, Making Tax Digital was expanded to cover Income Tax returns too.

Preparing for MTD submissions

A few things need to be in place before you can meet your clients’ VAT filing deadlines.

1. Check you both have the right software in place. If you’re still not sure if your provider is compliant with Making Tax Digital, check out HMRC’s list of recognised providers (including Intuit QuickBooks, of course).

2. Create an agent services account (asa). If you haven’t done this yet, HMRC has clear instructions.

3. Link your clients to your asa. This is very straightforward if you’ve already submitted a VAT return on their behalf. If you haven’t, you’ll need to allow a few days for their approval.

4. Sign your clients up for Making Tax Digital at the right time. Remember, once you’ve signed them up you can’t go back to the old system. Still not sure if your clients need to comply? Try QuickBooks’ MTD-checker.

5. Next, you’ll need to authorise your software to interact with HMRC and enable MTD for each client. This will need to be done again in 18 months’ time.

6. Finally, enable MTD in QuickBooks for each of your eligible clients. This needs to be done separately for each individual and can take some time.

When to sign your clients up to MTD

It takes 72 hours for HMRC to send confirmation through, so make sure you sign clients up well before their MTD for VAT quarterly submission deadline.

If your client pays their VAT by Direct Debit, you’ll need to leave at least 5 days from the date of their last VAT submission, and allow at least 7 days before the first MTD for VAT submission is due.

Key MTD deadlines for your VAT-registered clients

• 1 April 2021 – 30 June 2021 (These need to be filed by 7 August

• 1 July – 30 September 2021 (These need to be filed by 7 November)

• 1 October – 31 December 2021  (These need to be filed by 7 February)

• 1 January – 31 March 2022 (These need to be filed by 7 May)

For clients that pay VAT quarterly, their VAT return deadline remains at 1 month and 7 days after the end of their VAT period. For example, the VAT return that covers 1 April – 30 June needs to be filed by 7 August.

We hope you’ve found this article about MTD deadlines useful. If you follow these simple steps, you can be sure you’re MTD compliant – QuickBooks takes the stress out of deadlines.

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