Tag: HMRC
Is my HMRC email a fake?
With the ever busy January behind us, we wanted to quickly address something a lot of people suffer from, receiving a fake HMRC email.
So, how can you tell if it’s real?
The first step is to think about what the e-mail says, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Do you do a tax return or have any reason that the HMRC would want to contact you?
The really important thing to remember is if you’re not doing anything wrong then you’ve no reason to fear calling them to check the validity of an e-mail! There’s also some useful information online at https://www.gov.uk/topic/dealing-with-hmrc/phishing-scams
Remember, scammers are getting more and more sophisticated and fakes are becoming harder to spot. We’re more than happy to try and help you if you are still unsure, you can forward the e-mail to us for our opinion, please don’t send any attachments with it or we will probably not open it, we want to protect ourselves too!
But remember, if you’re in doubt then don’t click on any links, give the HMRC a call.
Making Tax Digital – What you need to do
There’s been a lot of shouting about Making Tax Digital (MTD) kicking off on 1stApril, with HMRC trying to ensure everyone who needs to know, knows. Equally though, we’ve heard stories of people who are still using journal books saying “it doesn’t apply to us as we’ve not had a letter”. So maybe you’re one of the people that is unsure or doesn’t think it applies to them?
Put simply, if you are a VAT registered business with a taxable turnover above the VAT threshold, you are required to use the MTD service from 1stApril 2019. There are a few small exceptions that can be found here but for the most part people must be using software to keep their records in a digital form and file their VAT returns using software. Importantly, copying and pasting information from one location to another features in the list of things that are NOT compliant when it comes to the final figures (so you can copy and paste during normal operations but you can’t copy and paste the figures to be submitted around, they have to transfer electronically).
There’s a lot of information out there, not always in the clearest form, so if you need any help or advise please feel free to contact us, we’re here to help!