UK VAT - Making Tax Digital

UK VAT Electronic Lodgement Instructions

Register with HMRC

Before you can lodge your VAT electronically using a software program such as AccountAbility, you need to complete the process on the HMRC website outlined in the link below:

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/vat-through-software/sign-up/have-software

Accountability Set Up

• Go to Set Up Files / Set Up Options – click the link ‘Options’
• Under the ‘OTHER OPTIONS’ selection, tick/check the Option ‘Use Electronic UK VAT Lodgement’
• ​Go to Set Up Files / Set Up Options – click the link ‘API Integrations’.
• Click the link “UKVAT MTD Credentials’
• Click the button ‘CREATE A NEW TOKEN’ – this will take you to the HMRC web site to create the registration token – click the green ‘CONTINUE’ button at the bottom of the page
• Sign in with your company credentials (the same credentials you use to lodge your VAT return currently)
• ​After signing in – click the ‘Grant authority’ button to authorize AccountAbility
• Once complete – enter your business name, and your VAT Registration number, then click OK
• Your access token will be created and displayed in Accountability:
  

Note that if you wish to include items under the following categories, they must be assigned to a Tax Code ‘EU’:

Lodging your VAT Return

You should complete your accounting month end close for the month/quarter of the return you are about to lodge. We strongly recommend that at this point you should close that accounting month – so that no changes or additions are made to AccountAbility prior to that month. For example if you were about to lodge your VAT Return for the quarter ended March 2019 – you should set your current accounting month in AccountAbility to April 2019. Once your VAT return has been lodged, we strongly recommend you do not re=open any prior accounting periods as any changes made to the data for those months may result in your AccountAbility data differing from the VAT return previously lodged.

• Go to Accounting / General Ledger / General Ledger Reports / Tax Reports – select ‘UK VAT Returns’
• Click the button ‘CREATE A NEW RETURN’ Select the Business Name you want to create a return for – then using the drop down, select the ‘Obligation’ – this will list for you the VAT returns that are available for lodgement.
• If there are transactions for particular Tax Codes you don’t wish to include in your return – de-select them using the Tax Codes filter.
• Click ‘OK’ (note this will not yet lodge the return with HMRC – you will have a chance to review it before lodging the return)
• Now you will see the new VAT Return record created in AccountAbility for you to Review
• To see a detailed list of transactions making up the Return – click the ‘List Export’
• If any details are incorrect – you should:
  • Delete the Return Record
  • Make any adjustments required to AccountAbility transactions
  • Create the Return again

Once you are happy with the Return totals for each column, tick/check the record and click ‘SUBMIT’ – you will be asked to confirm the declaration. Once confirmation is received back from HMRC that the return has been lodged successfully – that return record in AccountAbility is then locked and cannot be deleted.