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.

Because we received so many questions during the session, we were unable to answer them all at the time - and so have split the remaining questions into a series of blogs, so that everyone receives the clarity they want and need!

In this second instalment, we will answer all of your APARI & Record Keeping related questions!

(some questions have been edited for clarity).

Tell me about apari!

Will you be running a webinar about how to use the software?

Great idea - we'll arrange this! In the meantime, we have some "how to" videos about the APARI software click here to find out more.

How much does APARI cost?

APARI's MTD software has 3 price options. It’s free to get started. Full details are here. The cost is a tax-deductible expense.

What is the cost if I have one property portfolio and pensions?

All price options allow unlimited properties and non-business information. If you are both a landlord AND self-employed, you will need to upgrade to our 'Standard' package.

Will jointly owned property businesses (husband and wife) have to pay 2 software subsciptions?

A husband and wife - or any other joint property owners - are required by HMRC to submit their own, individual tax return. Therefore, they each require an APARI account.

What about Digital Record Keeping?

Who owns the data, Apari or the Landlord?

Your data is owned by you. And you're always able to export this from APARI. APARI was created so that taxpayer could control their own tax story, so we would never claim your tax data as our own. read more here!

I keep all of my records in excel. Is this not suffiicent? Do I need to purchase a specific software to meet MTD requirements?

You can still use a spreadsheet BUT you will also need specific software to submit your quarterly updates to HMRC. At APARI, we've made it really easy to upload your existing spreadsheet so that you can use the records to do your MTD submissions.

most of my invoices will be received in hard copy. Do these have to be uploaded digitally?

As long as you have a digital record of each transaction (e.g. by inputting the details into APARI), then you don't need to upload a copy of that invoice into any digital platform. However, many APARI users want to keep all of their documentation in one place. So we created our Snap & Store feature, which lets you upload photos or PDFs and attach them to the relevant transaction.

How does APARI deal with cash transactions?

In APARI, you can add transactions manually. So if you have transactions that aren't on your bank/credit card statement, you can still include them. In APARI, you can group all cash transactions together and keep track of how you are paying your expenses.

How does APARI handle jointly owned property?

APARI has a state of the art 'Joint Property' feature that allows you to set the ownership percentage of each property. This lets you split the ownership in any ratio, whether that's 30:70, 25:75 or even 12:88!

Do HMRC have a list of MTD software providers?

HMRC do provide a list of software that they recommend - APARI is on that list, but you can find the full list here! https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-software-thats-compatible-with-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax

What if i want to continue keeping my data in SPREADSHEETS?

In this situation we would recommend something called "shadowing". We would never want any tax payers to be in situation where they feel out of depth, or uncomfortable with their own tax records, and so if you want to keep your records in a spreadsheet format you can absolutely do so - what we would recommend is having software alongside this excel spreadsheet - then you can update the software in parallel to your spreadsheet, keeping you MTD compliant but also giving you a place to check your figures - then if at any point you feel comfortable enough, you can always make the switch to software permanently.

Want to know more about MTD right now?

Check out our Ultimate Guide to Making Tax Digital.