SWINDON and Wiltshire businesses with an annual turnover above £85,000 are being urged by HM Revenue and Customs to sign up to Making Tax Digital online before filing their taxes.

Many of the 1.2 million businesses affected by the MTD rules need to submit their first quarterly VAT return to HMRC using software by August 7 or July 29 if paying by direct debit.

HMRC Making Tax Digital director Theresa Middleton said: “Now is the time for businesses with an August quarterly filing deadline to sign up and join the hundreds of thousands already experiencing the benefits of MTD.

“During this first year we won’t be issuing filing or record keeping penalties to businesses doing their best to comply.”

The scheme was first announced in 2015 and will make it easier for businesses to get their tax right, reducing tax lost due to avoidable mistakes.

HMRC expects it to reduce tax lost due to errors, thanks to the improved accuracy that digital records provide and the fact that information is sent directly from software to HMRC.

The latest tax gap figures showed avoidable mistakes cost taxpayers more than £9.9 billion last year.