Wave Accounting not MTD compliant? Who cares!

It is no secret that I have been a lover of Wave accounting for some time now. It is free, extremely easy and intuitive to use (much more so than Sage or Quickbooks), easily accessible from wherever you happen to be working and wonderfully collaborative which, for us at Island Web Design where we look after the book keeping needs of several businesses and clients, is a must!

The only tiny fly in the ointment was the introduction of MTD, this ridiculous scheme dreamt up by the idiots at HMRC, which is pushing all of us small business owners into the welcome embrace of vastly over-engineered and hugely expensive accounting software companies. I shudder to think how much of their client's monthly subscription fee Quickbooks spends on their TV adverts. MTD must have seemed like all their Christmases coming at once!

We have been scare-mongered, Brexit style, into signing up with one of these subscription based account packages saying that nothing else will do once MTD becomes a fact as from today (1 April 2019). However, I have been monitoring this for a while and it already became evident last year that a few companies were developing bridging software to facilitate those still doing their accounts on spreadsheets. No such advice from HMRC of course. In fact. the House of Lords was less than complimentary about the efforts of HMRC, as reported by Accounting Web's editor, Tom Herbert in this article.

I, and many others, contacted Wave and asked "What are you doing about MTD?". As a Canadian company with the majority of their clients across the pond, you would have expected it not to be on the top of their list of priorities. But, in their support article they stated: " Wave has been closely following the development of the MTD agenda and its technical implementation. Given the partial nature of the launched solution by HMRC, the anticipated changes to the structure of the VAT100 return that will arise from the UK’s departure from the EU, and lack of clarity around future evolution of the MTD environment as it progresses towards income tax filing, we have decided at this time not to build a direct connection from Wave to HMRC. Instead, we will enable Wave customers to comply by using approved bridging software."

Today, I received an email from Wave support stating:

New VAT100 report
This week, we’re releasing a new VAT100 report to our UK customers. Access the report by clicking Reports in the left-hand navigation menu. This new functionality helps you comply with the digital filing element of MTD. The VAT100 report will allow you to export your data to a spreadsheet, which you can then upload to approved bridging software in order to file your return.

I have read VAT Notice 700/22, section 8 and I am still none the wiser whether this solution can be permanent or is only valid until April 2020. But I, for one, am happy to be able to continue using Wave. I am sure people much more clever than myself will come up with any necessary solutions for future MTD developments to keep us out of the clutches of Sage et all!