Minns
    Your money · VAT & tax

    A VAT return worked out from your books, checked before anyone files it.

    At the end of each VAT period your assistant runs the return from the books: nine boxes, each from the postings behind it, the control account checked and anything odd named. You approve it, and your accountant files it with HMRC through Making Tax Digital. Nobody retypes a figure.

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    Works from your books in Minns, pulled from Xero or QuickBooks, or read from FreeAgent. Filed through Making Tax Digital.

    The return as it reaches you, with the checks already done. Example names and figures.

    01 · Box by box

    Nine figures that come straight from the books.

    The return is not typed in. The engine reads every sale, purchase and bank line in the period with its VAT code and works out boxes 1 to 9 to the penny, so the figures flow digitally from your records to the return, as Making Tax Digital requires.

    Ask about a box and your assistant shows what is behind it: the invoices and bills, the reverse charge lines, the refunds. If a box is higher than last quarter, you can see which postings made it so.

    • Boxes 6 and 7 in whole pounds, the rest to the penny.
    • On the invoice basis, the VAT on a debt you write off comes back in box 4 once it is six months overdue.
    • Boxes 2, 8 and 9 are for goods between Northern Ireland and the EU; the return says to see your accountant if that is you.
    02 · Checked first

    What would make the return wrong, named before you approve.

    A return is only as good as the books under it. So before it calls a return ready, the engine checks that every bank line in the period is explained, that no invoice dated in the period is still a draft, and that the VAT control account moved by exactly the VAT on the lines. If one fails, it says which and by how much.

    Your assistant works through each warning with you: placing the lines nobody has explained, issuing or voiding the drafts, and looking at reverse charge or postponed import VAT against the supplier's invoice and your import statement. A return with open questions is never called ready.

    • Lines with VAT dated before your registration are named, since your first return starts on that day.
    • If the books change after you approve, the return asks for your yes again on the new figures.
    • Your assistant compares each box with earlier returns and explains a big swing.
    03 · Your scheme, as it is

    Standard, flat rate or cash accounting, monthly or quarterly.

    Each scheme changes the return. On cash accounting, VAT follows the money in and out, not the invoice date. On the flat rate scheme, VAT due is your flat rate on what you took including VAT, less 1% in your first year of registration, and a capital purchase of £2,000 or more has its VAT reclaimed on its own.

    Your scheme and VAT period are yours to set in the app. A change takes effect from the start of a VAT period, and earlier periods keep the rules they were kept under.

    • A change of flat rate is dated, so a period that straddles it uses each rate on its own days.
    • Selling an asset on the flat rate scheme asks whether its VAT was reclaimed when you bought it.
    • Your assistant can lay out which scheme suits you, with the figures, for you and your accountant to decide.

    Illustrative figures. Your flat rate depends on your trade; your assistant looks it up on gov.uk rather than quoting it from memory.

    04 · Corporation tax

    The computation and the CT600 boxes, drafted from the ledger.

    For a limited company, your assistant works out the corporation tax for the year from the books: the accounts profit adjusted account by account for tax, capital allowances from the fixed assets you bought, losses set off as the law allows, and the tax at the year's rates with marginal relief. Each CT600 box comes with the workings behind it.

    What the books cannot know, such as associated companies or losses brought forward, you or your accountant give it. It names every problem and warning. A person approves the computation, which provides for the tax and locks the period, and your accountant files the return.

    • Loans to directors are checked for section 455 tax.
    • Worked out again from the books as they are now, whenever you ask, until it is approved.
    • Never approved or filed by the assistant.

    Marginal relief: 3/200 of (£250,000 less £91,200). Example figures.

    The use case: one VAT quarter

    From the quarter's end to HMRC's receipt.

    One quarter, July to September. The engine works it out, your assistant checks it with you, you approve it, and your accountant files it.

    1. 1 OCT

      The quarter closes

      Your assistant starts the VAT return workflow: statements in, rules applied, the last bank lines suggested, the books reconciled to the bank.

    2. 2 OCT

      Two things to look at

      The checks find two unexplained bank lines and a draft invoice. Your assistant asks you about the lines and spots that the draft duplicates invoice 1047.

    3. 5 OCT

      Cleared, and worked out

      You place the lines and void the duplicate. The return is worked out again: £5,305.15 to pay, the control account agreeing.

    4. 6 OCT

      Your yes

      You approve the return from the figures you saw. If the books moved after that, it would ask you again.

    5. 8 OCT

      Filed through MTD

      Your accountant submits it to HMRC through Making Tax Digital. HMRC's receipt is kept, the return is marked filed and the quarter locks.

    Example names and figures.

    Who decides

    It does the work. You make the calls.

    What the assistant may do on its own, and what only you, or someone you choose, may do.

    The assistant may

    • Work out the VAT return from your books, with the checks and warnings.
    • Explain each box and the postings behind it.
    • Fix what the checks find with you: unexplained lines, drafts, reverse charge.
    • Draft the corporation tax computation and the CT600 boxes.
    • Read your VAT dates and HMRC's obligations once HMRC is connected.

    Only you may

    • Approve the VAT return and the corporation tax computation.
    • File with HMRC. You or your accountant do, never the assistant.
    • Pay HMRC.
    • Set your VAT scheme, period and flat rate.
    • Write off a bad debt, which is what lets relief be claimed.
    Questions owners ask first

    Straight answers.

    Does the assistant file my VAT return?
    No. It works the return out and checks it. A person approves it, and your accountant files it with HMRC through Making Tax Digital. If you file yourself, you submit it from your MTD software and mark it filed with HMRC's reference.
    Does it log in to HMRC's website?
    No. It never signs in to HMRC's website, and the HMRC connection's tokens never reach the assistant. The platform makes every call to HMRC, and it submits a return only when a person presses the button.
    Where do the figures come from?
    From the books engine, which works out every box from the postings in the period. The assistant reads and explains the figures. It never adds anything up itself, and a total is never retyped.
    Which VAT schemes does it handle?
    Standard, flat rate (with the first year discount) and cash accounting, monthly or quarterly. Annual accounting, retail and margin schemes, partial exemption and goods between Northern Ireland and the EU go to your accountant with the figures.
    Can a filed return be changed?
    No. A filed period is locked. A mistake found later is corrected on a later return or reported to HMRC separately, depending on its size, and your assistant helps you work out which.

    Give your business an assistant.

    Connect your mail, calendar and books in a few minutes. It works the way you do, and asks before it acts in your name.

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