Introduction to MTD for VAT

Making Tax Digital (MTD) is an HMRC initiative focused on requiring taxpayers to keep digital records and to send updates to HMRC directly from those digital records.

MTD for VAT means that VAT-registered businesses are now required to follow the Making Tax Digital rules by keeping digital records and using software to submit their VAT returns.

For details of what records you must keep, please refer to https://www.gov.uk/guidance/record-keeping-for-vat-notice-70021.

For many businesses, a spreadsheet is suitable to store your digital records; formulas can then be used to calculate the values for the VAT return. Other businesses may use dedicated bookkeeping software which can export the VAT return as a spreadsheet.

In either case, ABC VAT Bridge can then be used to pull values from that spreadsheet and submit them to HMRC - this is referred to as ‘bridging software’.

To start submitting using ABC VAT Bridge:

1. Download ABC VAT Bridge and install it on a Windows PC or a Mac
2. When you use the software you will be prompted to authorize ABC VAT Bridge to allow it to connect to MTD for VAT
3. For a walkthrough of the submission process see this video