HMRC: Making Tax Digital (MTD) VAT pilot to close for scheduled maintenance

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HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has confirmed that its Making Tax Digital (MTD) VAT service will be closed for scheduled maintenance this weekend through to Tuesday morning.

The MTD VAT service will be closed from 5:30pm on Friday 8 February until 8:30am on Tuesday 12 February.

During this period, there will be no access to any element of the service. This includes new customers joining the pilot and existing customers accessing their accounts or making submissions. Customers who join the service immediately before the closure may experience a delay in receiving their sign-up confirmation.

Making way for additional functionality

Theresa Middleton, Director of the Making Tax Digital for Business programme, says the scheduled maintenance will release additional functionality to allow HMRC to open the pilot later in February to the majority of customers within the small deferral group.

“We have identified a time slot that should cause minimum disruption to customers who have already joined the service, especially as it falls after the 7 February filing/payment date. Nonetheless, I appreciate that any closure is unwelcome and apologise for any inconvenience caused to customers as a result.”

Service to re-open Tuesday morning

Middleton added: “If any customer who is participating in the pilot needs to file their VAT return they should wait for the service to re-open and not revert to using the HMRC portal or their old ‘XML’ software in the interim. They can pay using their usual payment channel.”

HMRC has already written to over half the businesses that are mandated from April and during February will write to all remaining businesses eligible to join the pilot. The MTD Income Tax pilot is unaffected by this maintenance.

To learn more about Xero’s Making Tax Digital for VAT beta programme, visit our beta guidance page for Xero partners.

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