If an income or expense you expected is missing from your Making Tax Digital (MTD) quarterly update, or a quarter shows no figures at all, the transaction has usually failed one of three checks. This guide explains each check and how to fix it, so your quarterly update reflects your full records before you submit it to HMRC.
What you need to know
A transaction is only included in a quarterly update when it passes all three checks: its category is mapped to an HMRC category, it is marked as paid, and it is not marked as a capital expense.
The payment date decides which quarter a transaction falls in. The due date and invoice date are not used.
Once a quarterly update has been submitted to HMRC it cannot be edited, so work through these checks before you submit.
Check 1: The category is mapped to an HMRC category
Each of your income and expense categories needs to be mapped to an HMRC category. Transactions in an unmapped category are left out of your quarterly update, and the submission page will show a "You have unmapped categories" warning.
Step 1: Open the missing transaction and note its category.
Step 2: Go to "Making Tax Digital" and select "Category mapping". Landlord Studio will display your categories alongside the HMRC category each one is mapped to.
Step 3: Find the category from Step 1, map it to the matching HMRC category and save.
Every transaction in an unmapped category will be missing from your quarterly updates until that category is mapped, so a single unmapped category can leave out several figures at once.
Check 2: The transaction is marked as paid
Only paid transactions are included in a quarterly update. Landlord Studio uses the payment date to decide which quarter the transaction belongs to.
Step 1: Open the missing transaction.
Step 2: Check the transaction is marked as paid and that the payment date is correct.
Step 3: If it is unpaid, mark it as paid, enter the date the payment was actually made and save.
An expense invoiced in one quarter but paid in the next will appear in the quarter it was paid. If a transaction shows up in a different quarter than you expected, check its payment date.
Check 3: The expense is not marked as a capital expense
Capital expenses are excluded from quarterly updates. Find out more about how capital expenses work in Managing Capital Expenses.
Step 1: Open the missing expense.
Step 2: Check whether "Capital expense" is selected.
Step 3: If the expense was marked as a capital expense in error, untick "Capital expense" and save.
Whether an expense is capital or not is a tax decision, and getting it wrong can misstate your figures with HMRC. Only change this setting if it was set by mistake. If you are unsure, check with your accountant first.
Re-check your quarterly update
Step 1: Go to "Making Tax Digital" and select the obligation for the quarter. Landlord Studio will display the quarterly report with your updated figures.
Step 2: Confirm the missing figures now appear before you select "Submit to HMRC".
Related
If you need help working out why a figure is missing from your quarterly update, reach out via the in-app chat or at help@landlordstudio.com.