andyscotland Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Just seen this highlighted on a tax & finance email I get, and couldn't see it mentioned here yet https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-diy-housebuilders-scheme-digitisation-of-claims-and-extending-time-limit/vat-digitisation-of-claims-and-extending-time-limit-for-diy-housebuilders-scheme From 5th Dec 2023 apparently: * The time limit (I think for all claims) will be 6 months from completion, not 3 * There'll be the option to claim online (which presumably will also let you see status etc) * They will apparently no longer require all the invoices at the time of submitting the claim. I assume that will put things on a similar footing to businesses, where they might inspect some claims/ask for a random sample of evidence, and potentially impose penalties etc if they discover you've claimed something you shouldn't have - they don't spell out exactly how that will work. So would still be important to make sure you have & have checked all the invoices, but no longer the need/risk to post off all the originals to HMRC and hope they arrive... 6 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Ah, so the proposal has been checked by a Financial Secretary to the Treasury has it ? Quote Victoria Atkins MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has read this tax information and impact note and is satisfied that, given the available evidence, it represents a reasonable view of the likely costs, benefits and impacts of the measure. I've just finished reading: Dunt, I., 2023 How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn't . I now de-code the quotation above as : The MP concerned has been shown a piece of paper which she signed, but didn't read, and if she did, she didn't understand the content. Again. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 If the electronic form is well designed, then this is all good news. But I'm thinking it will still be best to number every document before setting up for a long session of scanning. I wonder which of us will be first to test this out. We are 9 months off at best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyscotland Posted November 29, 2023 Author Share Posted November 29, 2023 27 minutes ago, saveasteading said: But I'm thinking it will still be best to number every document before setting up for a long session of scanning. I'd definitely suggest numbering every document as I assume they will still want a detailed schedule of the individual items you're claiming. However from the sounds of the announcement so far it might be numbering every document & putting them in a lever arch file in case they ask for them later, rather than having to scan them all. Which would be good. I wonder if they've done a cost-benefit analysis of how much time they spend checking all the individual invoices Vs how much they save in amounts they reject from the claim, and decided it's cheaper to take it on trust with a bit of audit/targeted inspection as for normal business VAT claims. 27 minutes ago, saveasteading said: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 22 minutes ago, andyscotland said: cost-benefit analysis I'd say so. Or simply avoids replacing staff shortages. I wonder how skilled the assessors are in construction, or do they mostly skip through anyway, looking for the unusual. 25 minutes ago, andyscotland said: numbering every document & putting them in a lever arch file in case they ask for them later, rather than having to scan them all. Which would be good. Yes. If there's somebody not to cheat it's the vat inspector. One sat opposite me for 3 days convinced we were up to something....then said 'oh I see..that's all fine'. But he went away with copies of subby invoices. He even told me the common dodges they were looking for. We were squeaky clean but it still felt uncomfortable. There won't be any imaginary costs in our submission. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BotusBuild Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 5 hours ago, saveasteading said: I wonder which of us will be first to test this out. Me, me, me, please, I live to break govt websites 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 I read this in my morning email also. one accountant points out how will they access the portal. more government gateways. If it’s still expected to be entered line by line rather than type of expense then I imagine for some of the people who make filing these claims there business it won’t be any quicker as I’m sure they know their own spreadsheet so well it’s quick to enter the details once it’s online it slows everything down. So they may increase their costs to cover this or will they think more of us will do it for ourselves. I had to move accounting package from desktop SAGE to QuickBooks online and two years later I’m not as quick as I was on SAGE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andehh Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 We're due to submit ours in the next month or two, is this live now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 2 hours ago, Andehh said: Is this live now? 5th December it says, but what's the chance of it working? 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyscotland Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 On 29/11/2023 at 17:27, Susie said: I read this in my morning email also. one accountant points out how will they access the portal. more government gateways. I don't know if that's a huge issue, it seems fairly easy to set up an HMRC login these days (and some people will already have one). On 29/11/2023 at 17:27, Susie said: If it’s still expected to be entered line by line rather than type of expense then I imagine for some of the people who make filing these claims there business it won’t be any quicker as I’m sure they know their own spreadsheet so well it’s quick to enter the details once it’s online it slows everything down. I don't have any special info but it wouldn't surprise me if they take the same approach as for Charity Gift Aid claims - upload a spreadsheet with known column headings and data formats (or download a template from them and fill it in). It's hugely cheaper to build a system to parse and validate the content of a spreadsheet than to build one that can support line by line data entry and the likelihood of people needing to do it in more than one session - unless there's a need for variable/complex types of fields on each individual item. On 29/11/2023 at 17:27, Susie said: So they may increase their costs to cover this or will they think more of us will do it for ourselves. I had to move accounting package from desktop SAGE to QuickBooks online and two years later I’m not as quick as I was on SAGE. This is a huge bugbear of mine (as a software developer). None of the cloud accounting packages are anywhere near as fast to use for bulk data entry as the older desktop packages. They have other advantages, of course, but for "power users" they can be painfully slow to use! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt540 Posted December 8, 2023 Share Posted December 8, 2023 Anyone had a go on the online system yet? I tested to know how it goes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonner Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 On 29/11/2023 at 17:56, Andehh said: We're due to submit ours in the next month or two, is this live now? Hi, did you submit anything yet? I have a few jobs to get done but want to get a claim in as soon as finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patp Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Our claim is with the Self Build Accountant that specialises in these things. He is just waiting for our BCO to issue the completion certificate. We missed the certificate by a whisker before Christmas when he went on holiday 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewToAllOfThis Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Not ready to submit forms yet but created a spreadsheet similar to the old VAT claim form and scanned every invoice and now this change. Scarred to have a look at the online version in case it starts a clock ticking down on the 6 month window. Looking at the new paper form if it is a copy of the online then the main change are that it asks for the VAT registration number, also wants the total amount and the VAT amount information rather than just the VAT amount for invoices where the VAT is shown separate. On the old system where the VAT wasn't shown separate it just asked for the total amount, from the new paper form it seems to want you to calculate the amount of VAT as it again asks for total and VAT amount, unless the new form is incorrect and will be changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt540 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Just submitted mine online! 183 receipt lines using their template. will report back with how it goes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shuff27 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 27 minutes ago, Matt540 said: Just submitted mine online! 183 receipt lines using their template. will report back with how it goes Will be interested to hear about this - I probably (until I remember something else!) just have to buy interior paint & stone chippings for the drive before I submit mine. I've already re-formatted my spreadsheet to the new HMRC template. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt540 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 On 18/01/2024 at 19:13, Matt540 said: Just submitted mine online! 183 receipt lines using their template. will report back with how it goes Submitted on the 18th 22nd they emailed requesting i upload 10 specific invoices, uploaded that night. 26th, full claim amount landed in my bank account this afternoon new system seems pretty good! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavztheouch Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 I wish they would let you split the whole claim into say 3 individual claims. Quite a burden carrying the VAT for lengthy periods of time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deancatherine09 Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 Can you still claim for things bought after the official completion cert is issued? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonner Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 22 hours ago, deancatherine09 said: Can you still claim for things bought after the official completion cert is issued? The rules are not clear to me but the implication is you can only claim for materials incorporated in the building. If a completion certificate has been issued, further purchases would appear to be out of scope. Happy to be corrected as I am going for completion shortly and planning to order a list of materials before the certificate is issued. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 (edited) On 26/01/2024 at 20:08, Matt540 said: Submitted on the 18th 22nd they emailed requesting i upload 10 specific invoices, uploaded that night. 26th, full claim amount landed in my bank account this afternoon new system seems pretty good! I’m relatively close to vat submission. Online you don’t need to list / upload each invoice ?? . I have a crude spreadsheet - can I copy n paste that in ? Edited February 22 by Pocster Rude = crude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy_wafer Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 @Pocsterclaim-vat-refund-diy-invoice-template.xlsx here is copy of the template handed out by HMRC, and a screenshot of the webpage it came from. Hope that helps... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 3 minutes ago, crispy_wafer said: @Pocsterclaim-vat-refund-diy-invoice-template.xlsx here is copy of the template handed out by HMRC, and a screenshot of the webpage it came from. Hope that helps... Appreciated . Like others I don’t want to ‘look’ at the website and then some cookie reports me 😊 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 1 minute ago, Pocster said: Appreciated . Like others I don’t want to ‘look’ at the website and then some cookie reports me 😊 Actually looking at that template - I’ve almost got that apart from a seperate vat number column . Guess I’ll have to go through my 700 invoices and add it 🙄😊 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy_wafer Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 7 minutes ago, Pocster said: Guess I’ll have to go through my 700 invoices and add it Character building! 700, christ, I've done about 230 on mine, and a lot of them were silly little bulltish invoices for small amounts from the likes of toolstation or screwfix. Just add a second sheet with a vendor and VAT number and do a lookup for the main culprits and then fill in the anomolies. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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