Making Tax Digital (MTD) is a UK government initiative designed to make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right.

It requires certain taxpayers to keep digital records and submit tax information to HMRC using Making Tax Digital compatible software.

What are the current Making Tax Digital requirements?

MTD for VAT

Making Tax Digital is already in place for VAT and replaces the manual submission of tax returns through the HMRC portal. From April 2020, most VAT registered businesses with a turnover above £85,000 must:

• Keep their VAT records digitally
• Use Making Tax Digital compatible software to submit their VAT returns to HMRC

The aim of this is to:

• Reduce errors caused by manual processes
• Improve the accuracy of tax submissions
• Create a more efficient and transparent tax system

For more information on how Making Tax Digital works in practice within Expert Agent, see the Making Tax Digital for VAT - User Guide.

MTD for Landlords (income tax)

What is Making Tax Digital compatible software?

Making Tax Digital compatible software is a software program, or set of software programs, products or applications, that must be able to: 

• Record and preserve digital records 
• Provide to HMRC information and returns from data held in those digital records by using the API platform
• Receive information from HMRC via the API platform 

Is Expert Agent Making Tax Digital compatible?

Expert Agent doesn't hold all the information for filling in a VAT return so it cannot be HMRC making tax digital compatible on its own.  

However, Expert Agent does record and preserve digital records so when used alongside other programs, it is still a component of HMRC compatible software.  

To find out which accounting software is compatible and can link to the HMRC API, visit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/software-for-sending-income-tax-updates.

Related articles:

Making Tax Digital for VAT - User Guide

Stay Safe - Top Tips on how to spot online scams.  

We're always looking to improve our website security and our service to our partners so we'd like to offer you some tips to help you keep your personal details safe and identify some of the most common scams.  

Phising fraudsters will try to get you to give them your confidential or personal information by sending emails or texts that look genuine but link out to fake unsecure sites.  Look out for: 

Unusual Contacts - is the email, text or call from a contact you recognise or can verify? Do you normally receive emails, text and/or calls from these details?  Zoopla Property Division emails will only ever come from @expertagent.co.uk, @webskyltd.com or @zpg.co.uk.   

Urgent Subject Lines - That cause you alarm, e.g. 'Security Alert' or 'Your account may be suspended' hoping to convince you that you need to act straight away.  

Information Requests - Genuine companies wont email, text or call asking you for usernames, passwords, verification codes or other secure data.  

URLs - When viewing an email you can hover over hyperlinks (or buttons) to see the underlying website address.  If in doubt, don't follow the link but access your account in the usual way.  

Secure Websites - Look for the 'https' at the start of the web address and the padlock or unbroken key icon at the top of the page next to the address bar.  If you think you may have entered your details on a scam site, change your password immediately or contact us on our usual details.  We also recommend you report it to Action Fraud immediately.  

Top Tip: For added security make sure your passwords are at least 8 characters long, a mixture of upper and lower case letters and include some numbers too.  Try to change your passwords regularly and not use the same password across multiple sites.  

Personal and Premium Rate Numbers - This scam involved being asked to call a number that begins 070, which at a glance most people don't realise isn't a standard mobile phone number.  The caller is then kept on the phone for as long as possible resulting in a large phone bill.  070 numbers are perfectly legal, however, the usually incur high call charges (up to £1.50 a minute).  If you are asked to call an 070 number please first check the details within the lead and use the email details to request an alternative number.  

Top Tip: With calls from landlinds costing up to 65p a minute with an additional call set-up fee of up to 15p, and calls from mobiles costing up to £1.50 a minute, make sure to check with your phone provider for charges before calling an 070 number.  

For further information of if you think you've been affected by this scam please contact Ofcom, Phone-Paid Services Authority or Action Fraud. 

Additionally, you can report this to us by logging a Support Ticket from with your Expert Agent software.