On Tuesday 30th November APARI, along with our partners LandlordZone and special guest speakers from HMRC, hosted a webinar all about Tax, with a special focus on how Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will effect Landlords.

We received so many questions from our viewers, that we have had to split the answers into a serios of articles! In the first article in the series, we will be answering all of your MTD related questions!

(some questions have been edited for clarity).

MTD VS Accountants

Where does my accountant fit into my MTD journey? Do they get involved each quarter or just at the year end?

This depends on your relationship with your accountant - and how much you are willing to pay! Some landlords will ask their accountant to do everything, but we expect many to only require support at the end of the year when the tax liability must be finalised. Many accountants will encourage you to use the software that they prefer. It's just as easy to do quarterly submissions yourself with APARI, while your accountant uses their complicated software at the end of the year.

I normally use an accountant - This sounds like MTD negates the use of agents - is this correct?

Again, this depends on your relationship with your accountant and how complicated your tax portfolio is. It's certainly going to become more expensive to outsource everything to an accountant. If you have a great relationship with your accountant, MTD shouldn't be a reason to change! If you already do the work of gathering your income and expense, then you may see this as an opportunity to take more control and save money. A paid professional can always step in for more in depth advice or tax planning. Read more about using an accountant with MTD here!

Can MTD submissions be done by an accountant on my behalf?

Yes. But contact your accountant and ask them for their MTD plan and how your fees might change.

Staying MTD Compliant

If I want to change from my current MTD software, do I need to wait until the end of the tax year?

You can change MTD software at any time that suits you. Learning from MTD taxpayers that have moved to APARI from elsewhere, it's really important to transfer the individual transactions to your new software. We know that choosing MTD software isn't easy, so we've made it very easy to export your transactions from APARI. It's your data and we want to empower you to use it for your own benefit.

Do you have to include income from employment as well as property income?

You are not required to submit any employment information quarterly. In fact, under MTD, your employment income will automatically be pre-populated using the information sent to HMRC by your employer.

Do I need to do a separate submission for each business portfolio?

You will need to do separate submissions for:

• each self employed business;

• all UK properties; and

• all non-UK properties.

So, if you have: i) self-employed plumbing business; ii) a cupcake baking business; and iii) 2 UK residential property lets, you will do 3 submissions each quarter.

Want to know more about MTD right now?

Check out our Ultimate Guide to Making Tax Digital.