MTD ITSA – Your Step-By-Step Guide
This web page provides a complete guide to what you need to do to comply with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. The estimated effort to complete each task is based on our experience upgrading the initial group of customers.
Step 1. Check if you are eligible?
This User Guide will outline the eligibility criteria for those wishing to sign up to Making Tax Digital Self Assessment. If you are eligible, it will outline the information you need and how to sign up to this service.
Estimated effort to carry out this task: 15 minutes.
Step 2. Switching on the Rhino MTD ITSA Feature
This User Guide and Video Tutorial will provide a simple step-by-step guide to enabling the MTD ITSA feature for existing Rhino customers.
Estimated effort to carry out this task: 10 minutes
Step 3. Connect Rhino to your MTD Income Tax Account
This User Guide and Video Tutorial will provide a simple step-by-step guide to help you connect the App to your HMRC Tax Account.
Estimated effort to carry out this task: 5 minutes
Important: If you connected the App to your HMRC Tax Account and the app experiences issues interacting with your Tax Account, this will most likely an issue with your HMRC Login not being able to see the information for your National Insurance Number. Please refer to the Trouble Shooting section at the bottom of this page to help resolve these issues.
Step 4. Digital Record Keeping Options
Rhino provides customers with three different methods to maintain their digital records which is one of the most fundamental requirements for complying with Making Tax Digital.
Invoicing & Track Expenses Option: Some customers may wish to use our App to create Invoices and Record their Expenses.
Bridging (Spreadsheets) Option: Other customers may wish to maintain their digital records in a spreadsheet and can use our “Bridging” feature to upload this data to HMRC. Note that we only submit a summary of the spreadsheet to HMRC; we do not submit the spreadsheet but we do store the spreadsheet on your behalf so that it could be referenced in the future should you need to.
Simple Record Keeping Option: We introduced the “Simple Record Keeping” option as a simple way to comply with Making Tax Digital. You just record the Date, Amount and Notes for each transaction. It is really designed as an alternative to the Spreadsheet method for those that are not comfortable using spreadsheets, and especially for those that wish to use their smart devices to comply with Making Tax Digital.
Live Bank Feed: Customers can also link the Rhino app to their Bank Account and create the Digital Records straight from their Bank Account. We acknowledge that some customers are weary of linking any App to their Bank Account. We emphasise that we only READ information from your Bank Account. This information is used by you and only you to create the digital records as an alternative to entering the records manually. Again it is worth emphasising, we only submit a summary of your income and expenses to HMRC and neither HMRC nor Rhino access to your Bank Transactions.
Step 5. Trouble Shooting Section
A small number of customers connect the App to their HMRC Account and “Give Permission” for our App to interact with their Tax Account and then get a “Forbidden” error message. This is because the app cannot see the information relating to their National Insurance Number.
This issue is linked to your HMRC Login and it is not related to the app. This issue will occur irrespective of which MTD app you use. Please follow these steps to resolve the issue: –
Did you enter your National Insurance Number correctly in the App?
This is the most common issue and the easiest to resolve – please check that your entered the correct National Insurance Number and also check that you entered it without any spaces.
Did you Register for Making Tax Digital Self Assessment?
You will not be able to use HMRC Self Assessment if you have not registered for MTD Self Assessment on the HMRC website. Please refer to Step 1 at the top of this web page.
Issue with your HMRC Login accessing your National Insurance Number.
Please login to your HMRC website using the Login Details that you used to connect the App and check if you can see your National Insurance Number.
Some customers connect the App using their Business HMRC Login Details that will not have access to their personal tax information. We have also encountered issues where customers forgot their HMRC Login details and obtain another HMRC login which has issues accessing their National Insurance Number.
In summary, for any MTD App to work, the HMRC Login that you used to connect the App to your HMRC MUST have access to your National Insurance Number.