Bridging the Gap Between Making Tax Digital and NAV

In our latest blog on Making Tax Digital, we were pleased to announce that HMRC approved NAV as a compliant solution for MTD. However, we explained that this announcement only applied to versions 2015 and above and as for previous versions, there wasn’t yet a solution.  

We are now pleased to announce that Ocean Dynamics has partnered with Tax Optimiser, to provide a bridge for legacy NAV software to enable MTD-compliancy for VAT returns.   

What is Tax Optimiser? 

Tax Optimiser is an MTD-compliant web-based portal that enables users with non-compliant software to easily and legally submit their VAT returns. Using the familiar “9 box” format of the HMRC VAT submissions, Tax Optimiser processes your data and allows you to send your submissions to the new HMRC API service.  

For customers still deciding if and how they may undertake a NAV upgrade to achieve MTD compliance, this solution has the potential to provide some welcomed relief and more time to make plans. 

Time for an upgrade? We can also help you to upgrade your legacy software if you decide this is a better option for you. 

How do I use Tax Optimiser to submit my VAT returns? 

Getting MTD-ready is easy with Tax Optimiser, just follow these 3 simple steps: 

1. When VAT data is extracted from your NAV software to an external format such as an Excel or CSV file, you then need to configure Tax Optimiser to map your inbound data and define where the data is taken from in the external file. 
2. Simply upload your data to Tax Optimiser and the application transforms it into a recognised format for the HMRC API.
3. Finally, just submit your VAT return to the HMRC portal from within the Tax Optimiser application.

Tax Optimiser has provided a great 2-minute YouTube video to visually demonstrate this process, watch it here.  

How do I know my data is secure? 

The data you submit to Tax Optimiser is stored in a UK cloud. They encrypt all HMRC authentication tokens and the database is also encrypted at rest. Using only the best security practices, you can rest assured that there are no safety concerns for you submitting your VAT returns through this solution.

Cumulative update for Dynamics NAV 2015 and above 

There’s also news for Dynamics NAV versions 2015 and above with the release of a new cumulative update which will help with your VAT submissions.  

The newly released functionality includes: 

• Retrieve VAT obligations from HMRC
• Get reminded about VAT obligations that are approaching or already due
• Submit VAT returns to HMRC
• View the VAT return
• View VAT payments with HMRC
• View VAT liabilities with HMRC

This will all be contained with the Dynamics NAV application. 

If you require any additional information, advice or would like to kick-start achieving MTD-compliancy, then get in touch with one of our experienced advisors today.