Managing VAT can be a drawn-out process for many of the 2m VAT-registered businesses in the UK and Coconut’s app is the first smart-banking product to offer VAT management in a bid to ease the burden.

The new service will help customers record VAT on business transactions as soon as they happen. This means that for these customers and the accountants they work with, submitting VAT returns digitally will be a simpler process with much less back and forth to get things right.

Soon, customers and their accountants will be able to submit returns to HMRC’s MTD systems using the Coconut app.

Coconut recently launched its Accountant Portal too, to allow accountants to provide a much more efficient service to their clients. Key features include:
• Simple and secure access to transaction and bookkeeping data, for free.
• Super-fast onboarding of clients through one simple app that gives them everything they need to manage their books; invoicing, transaction coding, receipt capture and VAT management.
• Real-time view into transaction data meaning accountants can spend less time on manual bookkeeping and more time focusing on the advice and services that their clients value most.

Sam O’Connor, CEO of Coconut said: “MTD is the biggest shake-up to the UK tax system since self-assessment was introduced in the late 90s and we want to help make the switch is as easy as possible for our customers.

Our mission is to free the world’s self-employed business owners from accounting and tax admin. Our new VAT management feature will take us a step further in helping our customers do what they do best - run their business and worry less about managing their finances.”

Since launching in January 2018, Coconut has helped over 10,000 self-employed business owners free themselves from accounting and tax admin.