VAT returns
that are already done.

What Making Tax Digital requires

• —VAT records kept digitally in compatible software, not on paper or in a standalone spreadsheet.
• —Digital links between systems — no copying figures from one place to another by hand.
• —Returns submitted through HMRC's API rather than typed into their website.
• —The VAT account itself maintained digitally, including adjustments.

Why the return stops being a project

The reason a VAT return takes a weekend is almost never the return. It is the three months of unreconciled transactions behind it, which have to be sorted out before the nine boxes can be filled.

When the bank feed is reconciled daily and receipts are attached as they arrive, the quarter is already complete on the day it ends. What remains is checking the unusual items and pressing submit.

The parts that catch people out

• —Fuel and vehicle costs, where recovery is often partial and the rules are fiddly.
• —Entertainment, where the VAT is generally not recoverable at all.
• —Purchases with mixed business and private use, which need apportioning rather than claiming in full.
• —The scheme you are on — cash accounting, flat rate and standard produce different figures from the same transactions.
• —Pre-registration VAT, which can often be reclaimed and frequently is not.