VAT pilot extends to a further 500,000 businesses

The Making Tax Digital for VAT pilot is now open to sole traders and companies that are up to date with their VAT. Traders that have incurred a default surcharge in the past 24 months will be able to join by the end of this month.

However groups of companies are excluded for the time being as are those that trade with the EU. Exclusions also apply to businesses based overseas firms that submit annual returns and make payments on account and those that use the VAT flat rate scheme or are newly registered for VAT.

At the same time HMRC announced a six-month delay in mandation for some businesses. The main beneficiaries are trusts not-for-profit organisations that are not set up as a company VAT divisions VAT groups public bodies local authorities public corporations traders based overseas...