All business must file VAT returns online
27th January 2012
From 1 April 2012, all VAT-registered businesses must send their VAT returns online and pay their VAT electronically. Currently, only newly-registered businesses and those with turnover of more than £100,000 have to file and pay their VAT online.
The new rules will cover VAT returns filed for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2012.
HMRC advises that if you are not already filing your VAT online, switching now makes sense. This will avoid a last minute rush, and also provide access to the benefits which online filing provides and which HMRC lists as follows:
· an automatic acknowledgment that your return has been received;
· a handy arithmetic checker to help make sure you’ve done your sums correctly; and
· an email alert to remind you when your next online return is due (as, after April, HMRC will stop sending out paper returns to businesses which are now required to file online).
The new rules will cover VAT returns filed for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2012.
HMRC advises that if you are not already filing your VAT online, switching now makes sense. This will avoid a last minute rush, and also provide access to the benefits which online filing provides and which HMRC lists as follows:
· an automatic acknowledgment that your return has been received;
· a handy arithmetic checker to help make sure you’ve done your sums correctly; and
· an email alert to remind you when your next online return is due (as, after April, HMRC will stop sending out paper returns to businesses which are now required to file online).
