A high level summary of what accountants and bookkeepers need to get themselves and their clients ready for Making Tax Digital


Quick Recap of Making Tax Digital


Let's quickly recap the practical headlines of Making Tax Digital as it will be implemented on 1st April 2019:

  • VAT registered businesses with turnover in excess of £85,000 are in scope of this initiative
  • In scope businesses will need to:
    • Submit their VAT returns using HMRC's new MTD service; and 
    • Maintain the records that support those VAT returns digitally
  • Agents who submit VAT returns on behalf of their clients will need to:
    • Register with HMRC to use the new MTD service; and
    • Ensure that their clients are linked to their new account with HMRC
  • There are different deadlines for readiness based on the date the first MTD VAT return needs to be submitted:



10 Steps to MTD Readiness


Steps to Agent readiness:

  1. Identify the clients who are impacted
  2. Prioritise clients for processing according to their target date for readiness
  3. Register with HMRC for the new MTD service
  4. Ensure that software used is MTD-compliant
  5. Authorise the software supplier to connect to HMRC

Steps to Client readiness (repeat for each client):

  1. Ensure that software used is MTD-compliant
  2. Link existing VAT return client to new agent account at HMRC
  3. Link new VAT return client to new agent account at HMRC
  4. Check that client appears in list of linked clients in new agent account at HMRC

Final step for Agent readiness:

  1. Check that all clients impacted appear in the list of linked clients in the new agent account at HMRC


You can use Onkho to create and track the steps described. Go to Tracking MTD Readiness in Onkho.