Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, HMRC have announced that organisations will now have until the 1st of April 2021 to fulfil the ‘digital link’ phase of Making Tax Digital.
Although Making Tax Digital for VAT went live in 2019, organisations were initially granted a soft-landing period of one year, during which time the HMRC permitted the use of a manual copy/cut and paste method for the transfer and exchange of VAT return data before the digital submission to them via their dedicated API.
The use of this method in place of digital links was set to come to an end in April/October this year though, with organisations with more complex VAT-setups being granted the October deadline extension.
The on-going COVID-19 pandemic has caused the HMRC to delay the end of the soft-landing period though, with “all businesses now having until their first VAT return period starting on or after 1 April 2021 to put digital links in place.”
What is a digital link?
HMRC defines a digital link as ‘data transfer or exchange within and between software programs, applications or products’. In practice this involves creating a digital journey for your VAT return data, which will start at your Unit4 Business World (Agresso) system and finish with you submitting your VAT return via the HMRC’s dedicated API.
With the manual transferring of data within and between systems not a long-term option, the quickest and easiest solution is to utilise dedicated Making Tax Digital software as the HMRC explain:
“Users will get the maximum benefits from MTD – fewer errors, increased productivity and better financial planning – by using dedicated MTD software. This provides the full end to end experience, from digital record keeping to sending the return to the HMRC.”
A full Making Tax Digital solution that connects your Unit4 Business World (Agresso) system directly to the HMRC’s API will negate any need for spreadsheets and formulas, while also giving your staff no further record storage areas to manage and update moving forward.
Our Unit4 Business World (Agresso) solution
As official Unit4 Business World (Agresso) partners, we have developed a full HMRC-approved Making Tax Digital software solution, which connects your Unit4 Business World (Agresso) system directly to the HMRC’s API.
As well as offering you all the benefits of a dedicated Making Tax Digital software solution, the fact it has been designed specifically for Unit4 Business World (Agresso) means it also offers you a number of other benefits that are not available with other products:
- Works on all milestone versions of Unit4 Business World (Agresso)
- Fully compatible with the desktop and web versions of the system
- Ability to make adjustments via either General Ledger journals or BIF to our custom table
- Designed to work with a number of complex VAT set-ups. A full list of supported set-ups is available via https://www.integra-associates.com/our-blog/making-tax-digital-scenarios-our-solution-supports/
- Comes complete with an annual maintenance and support package to help ensure you are compliant moving forward
- Available to purchase through G-Cloud 11
