Filing VAT returns through OpenQuotes

VAT-registered businesses sending their own VAT returns. To begin with, OpenQuotes will not file on behalf of clients as an agent.

OpenQuotes does not yet do returns for the Flat Rate Scheme.

OpenQuotes is for VAT. It does not send Income Tax (Self Assessment) returns.

1. Connect to HMRC, once. OpenQuotes sends you to HMRC’s own website. You sign in with your business’s own VAT Government Gateway login (its organisation account, not a personal one) and give OpenQuotes permission to act for your business. We never see your HMRC password.
2. See what is due. OpenQuotes asks HMRC which VAT periods are open and shows you their dates.
3. Check the figures. OpenQuotes works out the nine boxes of the return from the invoices, credit notes, bills and payments you have recorded. You see all nine figures before anything is sent.
4. Confirm it is you. Before the return is sent, OpenQuotes asks for your passkey or authenticator app, unless you used one in the last 15 minutes. A recovery code alone cannot send a return.
5. Tick the declaration and submit. The Submit to HMRC button only works once you have ticked HMRC’s declaration, word for word as HMRC set it:

   When you submit this VAT information you are making a legal declaration that the information is true and complete. A false declaration can result in prosecution.

6. Keep the receipt. HMRC send back a reference number. OpenQuotes keeps it with the return and shows it to you, so you can show what was sent and when.

Only people whose role includes permission to file VAT. The owner, and anyone the owner allows to manage users, decides who that is.

• The return: your VAT number, the period and the nine figures.
• Fraud prevention details. HMRC require all software to send details about the device and the person using it, such as the device’s IP address, browser, screen size and time zone. Our personal data page lists every item.

Your return is not sent until you tick the declaration and press Submit to HMRC. The fraud prevention details go with every request OpenQuotes makes to HMRC’s VAT service, including checking which periods are open.

• The figures. OpenQuotes works them out from what you have recorded, but you are legally responsible for the return you send. Check them, and ask your accountant if you are unsure.
• Paying the VAT. OpenQuotes records payments but does not take or send them. Pay HMRC in the usual way: see Pay your VAT bill on GOV.UK.
• Deadlines. Sending the return on time is up to you.
• Keeping records. VAT records must be kept for six years. OpenQuotes keeps them for you, including for six years after you leave.

A return cannot be changed once HMRC have accepted it. Small mistakes can usually be put right on your next return. Larger ones have to be reported to HMRC separately. HMRC explain the limits in VAT Notice 700/45.

Yes. You can withdraw OpenQuotes’ permission at any time using HMRC’s Manage Authorised Applications service. The permission also runs out on its own: HMRC require software to be re-authorised at least every 18 months. When it has run out, OpenQuotes tells you the next time it contacts HMRC and asks you to reconnect.

If you stop using OpenQuotes, we keep your returns and records for six years and will send you a copy if you ask.

• Making Tax Digital for VAT, on GOV.UK
• Sign in to your HMRC business tax account
• Questions about OpenQuotes: eamonn@openquotes.co.uk