Martin Aitken & Co Ltd News & Developments

In this short webinar Mark McRae, Director Martin Aitken &Co, explains what Making Tax Digital is, who it applies to and what you need to do to prepare to submit your first digital VAT return post 1 April 2019 to HMRC.

In this short webinar (part 2), Kim Matheson, Cloud Services Manager, Martin Aitken & Co, provides an introduction to cloud accounting and runs through the MTD for VAT elements of two cloud accounting systems: Sage 50cloud and Xero. 

 In this short webinar (part 3), Mark McRae, Director Martin Aitken & Co, provides a short demonstration of the MTD for VAT elements of Clearbooks Micro. This software solution may be suitable for smaller/micro businesses using spreadsheets to record their financial transactions and who require a digital solution to submit their VAT returns post 1 April 2019. 

In this short video, Iain Johnston, VAT Specialist at Martin Aitken & Co, provides an introduction to VAT and explains why businesses and charities need to ensure that they deal with this tax correctly.

One of the most common questions we’re asked is whether or not VAT incurred on expenditure – known as “input VAT” - can actually be reclaimed or not.

In this short video, Iain Johnston, VAT Specialist at Martin Aitken & Co, provides an introduction to the different VAT rates: standard (20%), reduced rate (5%) and zero-rated (0%) and where they apply.

VAT for charities is a bit of a minefield and there seems to be a lot of confusion in this area. People may think that if something is a charitable activity, then it will have nothing to do with VAT. But this actually isn’t the case.

Many of the queries we deal with relate to whether VAT is due on the sale, purchase or rental of a property and the answer to this question is usually dependent on whether there is an “Option to Tax” on the property.

Please note: on Friday 6 September HMRC announced that the introduction of the Reverse Charge would be delayed for a year, until 1 October 2020 >read more. HMRC say the delay is to give affected businesses more time to prepare.The existing rules (i.e. no Reverse Charge for construction supplies) will continue to apply until then.If you have any query regarding this please contact our VAT Manager Iain Johnston.