11 October 2018 
Amanda Darley, Head of Operations and Engagement
EY has alerted us to an update in HMRC’s Overview of Making Tax Digital document here, published on 16 October, which sets out a new timeline with implementation of MTD delayed for ‘a small minority of VAT-registered businesses with more complex requirements’. MTD will be deferred until October 2019 for ‘trusts, ‘not for profit’ organisations that are not set up as a company, VAT divisions, VAT groups, those public sector entities required to provide additional information on their VAT return (Government departments, NHS Trusts), local authorities, public corporations, traders based overseas, those required to make payments on account and annual accounting scheme users.’ (My emphasis).
There are several categories above that universities could fall into, although we need to clarify what ‘set up as a company’ means specifically (whether it means incorporated via Companies House, which only applies to a few universities, or whether it just means incorporated, which all universities are). However, many universities are in VAT groups so would benefit from deferral that way anyway. However, any separately VAT registered subsidiary companies are unlikely to fall into any of the categories listed, so they will still be required to comply with MTD from April 2019. We will provide more information on the deferral once we have it.
