How to Sign Up for MTD

Most businesses can now sign up with HMRC for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT. Adopting MTD early gives you the chance to get familiar with submitting your VAT Returns under the new system before it becomes mandatory.

When to sign up

Once you sign up for MTD, you must submit your VAT Returns under the new MTD system. Before you sign up for MTD, check the following:

• The last VAT Return you want to submit under the Government Gateway has been reconciled and submitted.
• Your VAT settings are correct.
• Signing up for MTD must be done at least 5 working days after your last non-MTD VAT Return submission and at least 8 working days before your first MTD VAT Return submission.

Sign up for MTD

1. Visit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sign-up-for-making-tax-digital-for-vat
2. Click Sign up your business for Making Tax Digital for VAT and follow the on-screen prompts.
3. When prompted, enter your Government Gateway credentials then click Sign in.
   If your business is not yet eligible to sign up for MTD, a message appears to advise this.
4. Follow the on-screen prompts, providing any requested information.
5. When you receive a verification email, click the link in the email to verify your email address.
6. Read and accept the terms of participation.

HMRC will then confirm if you can start submitting VAT Returns under MTD – this confirmation usually occurs within 24 hours.
When submitting under MTD, businesses can continue to use their existing Government Gateway user ID and password credentials. Agents must use the new credentials they created as part of the Agent Services Account setup.