Perhaps not news that will dislodge Michael Jackson from the front pages this week, but online VAT submissions are on their way. Indeed they will be compulsory from April 2010 if your turnover is above £100 000.
HMRC are already accepting and actively encouraging online submissions, and Sage 50 2008 and 2009 are on their list of compatible software for doing so automatically. Sage 200 does not currently have an e-submissions feature, but can of course be used to generate the relevant figures, which can then be keyed in to an online submission form.
HMRC extol the virtues of online submission, promoting it as a quick, efficient, accurate and reliable way to make your return since there is no postal system in the way, there are built-in data validation routines. Somewhat oversold perhaps? At least with Sage 50 the submission is automatic so you should be able to grab all the modest time savings on offer. (more…)