It’s me again getting in a state about MTD?

Hi Denise just wanted to say please don’t panic… I felt exactly the same, as I’m sure lots of landlords do/did… I use Clearbooks and honestly MTD is a bit of a godsend to me – so far anyway and hopefully I’m doing everything right! Just submitted my first quarterly return. My affairs are fairly straightforward so more difficult portfolios may be more challenging, but instead of my usual depressing January mostly spent doing everything I should have been doing during the year, now I am made to do it quarterly it is something of a relief. I recommend Clearbooks, it is simple, recurring payments are automatically logged for you and if you need help, they are very helpful and respond quickly to queries… £6 per month… Good luck!

* Abridge.tax * is a simple plug-in that lets you stick with your spreadsheets if that’s what you are comfortable with. Only £39 per year, Great customer service. Easy decision!

You can apply for an exemption from HMRC not to submit the quarterly digital tax accounts if you qualify under their rules to continue and just submit the one yearly self assessment. It’s not easy to jump through the HMRC hoops to qualify but it may apply to some smaller less digital minded landlords. Has anyone in this forum successfully applied for an exemption, then please submit how you got on?

Hi Denise
I am sorry to hear that MTD has you in a spin.
The first thing to remember is that you are already mostly compliant with the legislation as you are already keeping electronic records. Excel spreadsheets fall within the requirements.

There are some simple solutions out there and they do not need to cost an arm and a leg.

If you really want to keep using your spreadsheets then there are a number of products which will take the information from your spreadsheets and submit the information to HMRC. The generic term for the software is bridging software because it bridges the information you have to enable it to be filed with HMRC.

Next there is a range of software which is written specifically for landlords. Like many online bookkeeping packages these will have a link to your bank account and will import the transactions into the software. Once there it will be down to you, or someone who helps you, to allocate the income, adding back any deductions such as agents fees, and also allocate the expenses. You should be able to set up rules so that regular transactions, such as mortgage interest, are dealt with automatically.

Some of these landlords’ packages having started out to help with the bookkeeping have added other peripheral items such as reminders for insurance, gas certificates etc. With larger portfolios these items can be missed so having reminders can be a help. Also with age comes forgetfulness, sometimes, so it may be a back up for you to have the reminders there, even if you don’t need the moment.

Lastly there are the existing regular online bookkeeping packages such as Xero, QB, FreeAgent etc.

These are general bookkeeping packages that have had tweaks put in so that they can be used by landlords. Not having been set up originally for landlords they can sometimes be fiddly to adapt. If you are going to use one of these packages then use them as a bookkeeping package for your rental income and do not try to shoehorn another way of record keeping into the package.

Different solutions work differently for different people and you have to find the one that works for you.

I would suggest that you talk to your accountant to see what they think would suit you best. Many accountants have specific product that they prefer to use but you should see what is out there and chose one that works for you.

Many sole traders, landlords and small business owners are not just concerned about the extra faffing of MTD (for nil benefit!),. Many are also accountant-phobic, so are not keen to put MTD to their hands too (as well as end-of-year accounts) if they aren’t forced to. A spreadsheet plug-in like Abridge.tax (others are available!) is likely to be the simplest, fastest and cheapest solution for many.

I like and recommend FreeAgent ‘Landlord version’ which comes free for Natwest customers.
It seems to make doing my accounts easier.
I am 67 and only just competent with tech but managed to get it all set up on my own, and have now submitted my first MTD return.

Hi Denise – yes there is – try my tax digital. Free front end. Use your excel spread sheet as normal – add up all you income from property sources. Add up expenses inc mileage and office costs and maintenance etc. Create yourself a my tax digital acct . Set it up as a bridging account. Link it to Hmrc. You download a template and fill in the amounts as appropriate and submit. There are online instructions available. You can then check to see if it’s submitted to Hmrc – easy stuff

https://mytaxdigital.co.uk/ Re my post above tried both Hammock and Clearbooks and found them time consuming and over complicated often requiring either a link to a bank account, lots of intrusive info or making you enter every income or expenditure transaction. My tax digital simple asks you to download a template and if your personal income is below 90k you just enter total income, total expenditure on the template – then select it to upload and then submit