Will the pressure to file VAT and other HMRC returns online cause you a problem or cost you more money? Let us know how the changes due to come in from next April are affecting your business.

I just need a day of thoroughly atrocious weather, to force me into the office to address my password issues

 

It won't affect me at all i've been submitting my VAT returns online for years.  Makes sense when accounts are all on the computer to file returns online.  It's much quicker, secure and i get confirmation it has been received.

I've been submitting my vat returns online for about a year. No problem whatsoever.

Welshnwilling,

                   I agree,excellent method and so fast.I also think filing the Tax Return on line is very good and because my Business is quite simple and I have someone in the family with Accountancy training it saves me a fortune.

Been do it for quite a while now money comes back much quicker, and you get a little extra time to pay by direct debit.

There are exemptions, one of which is if HMRC is satisfied that your business is run by practising members of a religious society, whose beliefs prevent them from using computers.

Are there any Amish comunities in the UK?  Are there any other religious sects which forbid the use of computers? 

Jacobus:

Are there any other religious sects which forbid the use of computers? 

Brocks, the machinery dealers and farmers at Thaxted are of some religion which won't allow use of mobile phones on their site. They used to take out any radios in tractors that passed through their hands, and wouldn't have anything to do with computers. Last year they were still using an electric typewriter to do invoicing! I think things have mellowed a bit now, they even have a website. But you'll soon get stopped if you swear or use a mobile phone in their yard, and I have every respect for them sticking to their principles, there aren't many that do.

bovril:

Brocks, the machinery dealers and farmers at Thaxted are of some religion which won't allow use of mobile phones on their site. They used to take out any radios in tractors that passed through their hands, and wouldn't have anything to do with computers. Last year they were still using an electric typewriter to do invoicing!

Seriously ? Good for them for standing up for what they believe in. I wonder which religion they are ? We have neighbours who don't work on a Sunday, apart from bare minimum tending stock etc. They have lost a few fields of hay over the years due to not baling on the sabbath. I have great respect for them. Don't think I could go to chapel knowing I had hay ready to bale with rain forecast for Monday, but that's me.

Think you are asking the wrong people here Robin, they have and are able to use a computer.  I am finding more and more farmers asking me to do things because they do not have and have no intentions of having a computer.  I try to convince them that they would enjoy having a computer and that they are not that difficult, but none the less there are loads of farmers out there who will not get to grips with a computer and who do not have anyone in the family who will do things for them.

I think you're on to something there Lizzyno, a lot of older farmers around here went out of cattle when passports came in. This was because they could not / would not cope with change. It wasn't such a big deal for the rest of us.

Yes I certainly have been asking the wrong people going by the responses I have had by phone pointing out the irony that people who have something to say on this matter might have trouble responding online.

There are certainly still a lot of people who are mistrustful of the internet, particularly when it comes to finances, and I've had many people saying that they wouldn't dream of doing online banking.

It seems like the online form is a quick and easy way of submitting your VAT return. Would it be better to plug the benefits of it to rural businesses rather than withdrawing the paper forms altogether? Or is this the only way to get people to modernise their paperwork?

welshnwilling:

Seriously ? Good for them for standing up for what they believe in. I wonder which religion they are ? We have neighbours who don't work on a Sunday, apart from bare minimum tending stock etc. They have lost a few fields of hay over the years due to not baling on the sabbath. I have great respect for them. Don't think I could go to chapel knowing I had hay ready to bale with rain forecast for Monday, but that's me.

 

our contractors don't work sundays, and neither do we other than the bare minimum. not least becasue its nice to have one quiet day a week where you arent running around trying to do seven jobs at once.

contractors dont lose work because of it, and been doing it for long enough to know that if you dont work sundays then dont go mowing all day on saturdays...