The Lemon Fool

Hi BJ
When is your deadline as next week sometime I will be going to see my friend again to help his do his 2nd return
so I'll see if we get any errors like yours
cheers
Paul

pje16 wrote:Hi BJ
When is your deadline as next week sometime I will be going to see my friend again to help his do his 2nd return
so I'll see if we get any errors like yours

Thanks Paul, my deadline is next Wednesday (7th), so I'm sweating a bit. But I'm trying not to worry too much, because I gather that HMRC don't fine for a first offence. Rather, they're introducing a new points-based regime whereby you'd have to be late four times before you copped a (probably) £200 fine.

The more I think about it, though, the more absurd this situation seems. HMRC says that I have to use third-party software, which I'm not allowed to tinker with, and if it all goes wrong because the software doesn't mesh with HMRC, then it's my fault and I'm liable. I mean, come on, how unfair is that?

(Ahem) In practice, I'll probably wimp out and mop my fevered brow, and then I'll get a copy of Quickbooks or something else that's widely used. And if that goes wrong then I'll know that the finger of blame is pointing directly at me and nobody else. Would still be intrigued to know whether any of your clients have had difficulty with getting authorisation, though?

Thanks again!

BJ

Hi BJ
I don't think I'll be seeing my mate before the 7th and I don't have the software or more to the point anything to use with it
sorry I know that's not much help,but I'm not sure what else I can do

pje16 wrote:Hi BJ
I don't think I'll be seeing my mate before the 7th and I don't have the software or more to the point anything to use with it
sorry I know that's not much help,but I'm not sure what else I can do

No worries, Paul, and thank you so much for all the time you've spent on helping me.

In the end, I decided to make the switch to QuickBooks, even though it was a much fuller accounting system than anything I'm ever likely to need. And after a mere two hours of gnashing my teeth about all the obscure terminology, and setting up payments on the wrong pages, and getting the dates wrong, and one or two "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that" moments, I finally got to the blessed moment when my VAT return was uploaded to HMRC....... who accepted it graciously. Yay, result!

Very sincere thanks. You don't know how relieved I am. Please pour yourself a (large) virtual drink from me!

BJ

Well done BJ
good to know you have managed to do it
It is SO frustrating when you are trying to do the right thing and the system won't let you