Ftax VAT Overview for Businesses (4:51)

We are very grateful to our clients for their comments and suggestions, without which these guides would not be possible.
If you have a suggestion to improve this guide or its associated video, please email tracey@ftax.co.uk

Ftax VAT Overview (for Businesses) - Step by Step Instructions

This guide gives an overview of the Ftax VAT form for businesses. The form enables you to submit VAT returns using your own spreadsheets in an MTD compliant manner. If you are a tax agent and act on behalf of Clients, please click here to see the video and guide Ftax VAT Overview (for Agents). This guide is broken down into the following sections:

1. Grant authority to Ftax to make submissions on your behalf
2. Download the form and if necessary, comply with the special notice
3. Set up the Ftax VAT form
4. Enter your business information
5. Import your VAT data
6. Submit the form to HMRC

1. Grant authority to Ftax to make submissions on your behalf

The new MTD system from HMRC requires users to grant authority to the software that they use to make submissions. You should only need to do this once for each software supplier you use and the authority is valid for 18 months. In order to grant authority to Ftax, click the link on your Ftax Account Home page:

This link will take you to the relevant section of the HMRC website. Please note that HMRC say this process can take three days. For further information on granting authority to Ftax, click here to view the video How to grant Authority to Ftax for MTD

2. Download the form and if necessary, comply with the special notice

Download the form from the Ftax website, open it with Adobe Reader and save it in a known location. If this is the first time that you have used an Ftax form, a Special Notice will be displayed which you must comply with before you continue:

Further information on the settings you will need to check are present on your computer before you begin using the Ftax MTD VAT form can be see in the video Ftax Setup Checklist

3. Setup the Ftax VAT form

Use the righthand navigation panel to help you set up the form. Click each button in turn to prepare the form:

3.1 Begin by clicking on the top button, 'Login to Account'. Login to your Ftax account with your Ftax Username and Password. Be careful not to confuse your Government Gateway Username and Password with your Ftax credentials:

3.2 Now select 'New Company' or 'New Individual' and enter your name or the name of the company and the UTR:

3.3 Click 'Validate Credit' and if a credit has already been allocated to this user, a popup will confirm this. If this is a new user and no credit has yet neen allocated, a popup will ask you if you wish to do so:

3.4 If any existing VAT form data featuring the same UTR is stored in your Ftax account, then you will be prompted to click 'Import Form Data' to import this data into the form:

3.5 Click 'Set VAT Form' and the form is ready for you to start entering data:

4. Enter your business information

Now go to the 'Businesses' page by clicking on the tab in the navigation bar on the left of the form, or simply scrolling down from the front page:

Enter the business details including Business Type. HMRC notes on this and many other aspects of completing the VAT return can be accessed by clicking the red ball in the middle of the VAT page. This will open a new tab and take you to the HMRC website:

5. Import your VAT data

Clicking the 'VAT registered' box on the right of the page will result in the two boxes beneath being highlighted:

When your VAT registration number is entered, the form will go online to HMRC to import the VAT period and date when payments are due. Please note that there can be a delay while our systems retrieve your data from HMRC. If the registration number is entered incorrectly, the following error will appear:

If the details you have entered are correct, the following message will appear and your VAT payment dates and any previously held data will be imported into the form.

Your data will be entered on the VAT page. A summary will also be displayed on the opening page:

The VAT page can be used to display each of the four VAT quarterly or twelve monthly reports by clicking the ‘Next‘ or ‘Previous‘ buttons:

Ensure you are displaying the next quarter or month to be submitted before clicking the ‘Import VAT Report‘ button. Ftax MTD forms allow you to import a CSV file from your own spreadsheets or another accountancy package. Further information on this is available on the video Exporting Data from Spreadsheets as a .CSV File. 

6. Submit the form to HMRC

When you are ready to submit, simply click the ‘Submit VAT Return‘ button and then agree with the form Declaration, HMRC’s popup declaration, and finally the ‘Submit Now‘ button. A green ‘Success‘ screen should now be displayed:

Click the ‘Back to Return‘ button to go back to the VAT page and you should see a message at the bottom of the screen which says 'confirmed by HMRC'. You should also see a red tick in the success box:

These mean that the form has successfully submitted and that this has been confirmed by HMRC and that the form has double checked this and is now displaying it. Totals for the entire tax year, again confirmed by HMRC and double checked via the form can be seen at a glance on the front page of the Client's VAT form:

Click the ‘Next‘ button and the form will again call HMRC to return and display the next quarterly or monthly report details. After Saving your form it will be ready for you to submit again in a month or 3 months' time, as is appropriate.

We are very grateful to our clients for their comments and suggestions, without which these guides would not be possible.
If you have a suggestion to improve this guide or its associated video, please email tracey@ftax.co.uk