HMRC is closing the portal on 1st November 2022. How will a VAT-registered business like yours be affected?

The UK Government is closing their portal to businesses from 1 November 2022. Many business owners of all sizes have used the portal to submit VAT returns, Self-assessment Tax returns and many more.

As the Financial Secretary to the Treasury says, ‘As part of the Government’s vision to modernise the tax system, tax returns will be replaced by digital tax accounts for millions of individuals and businesses. They will bring together each taxpayer’s details in one place, just like an online bank account, so they can register for new services, update their information, and understand quickly and easily what they need to pay —without ever having to complete a tax return again. ”

Many business owners might leave it to the accountant to work on their behalf, as the process requires meticulous details.
The businesses prefer to focus on the day-to-day business and keep moving forward. While the accountant can stay organised with digital records by doing the following but not limited to:

• – Create sales and purchase invoices to adjust to the business accounts
• – Easily access, amend or remove information to improve accuracy
• – Prepare the business for Income Tax Self-Assessment

Whether you are the business owner or the accountant working for the business, you must submit your online Self Assessment tax return by 31 January for the previous tax year by.
You must have registered for Self-assessment by 5 October in your second year of operation.

The next few critical dates for you are the followings:

• 30 December – based on your eligibility, you need to inform HMRC if you would like them to collect Self Assessment payments through your PAYE tax code directly
• 31 January – You need to File and pay your Self Assessment tax return online

              – if this is your first year as a business, make your first advance payment towards next year’s Self Assessment bill

• 31 July – Make your second payment on account.

You can find more about your deadlines from the HMRC self-assessment Tax return.

Without having a panic attack with all these dates while running the business, I needed to know what and how I needed to ask for help from my accountant colleague and where and when I needed to take action. 

I needed hands-on training from an expert to show me the available software I could use and how the software could organise all my accounting data. 

I had some excellent help in understanding UK tax accounting, learnt about the Personal Tax, Self Assessment, Corporation Tax and VAT – the rates, who it affects, deadlines, how to register and a general overview of the UK system from Lisa from her Tax Demystified. She has shown some excellent basics on the UK’s self-assessment Tax Return and Corporation Tax Return. 

My Accountant and I had an excellent introduction to Xero and Sage to use as accounting software to go digital with all my accounting needs.

I looked into the courses on my own time, and now I can plan and deal with the 31 January to file the Self Assessment Tax return online.