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Dentists Who Invest Podcast
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Dentists Who Invest Podcast
Making Tax Digital: Here’s What Dentists Need To Know with David Hossein [CPD Available]
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The rules are changing for self‑employed dentists. From April 2026, Making Tax Digital extends beyond VAT into Income Tax Self Assessment, pulling most associates and many sole‑trader practice owners into quarterly digital reporting. We brought specialist dental accountant David Hossein to cut through the noise: who is affected, what to file, the exact first deadlines, and how to set up the right software without creating a new full‑time job for yourself.
We start with the basics that trip people up. The threshold is based on income, not profit, and rental income in your own name can push you over the line. Dividends do not count. You will submit digital updates every quarter using MTD‑compatible software, then a final statement to tie everything together. Payments of tax do not change at first, but planning for eventual quarterly payments is wise. David lays out the first reporting period (6 April to 5 July 2026) and the submission date (7 August 2026) so you can work backwards and avoid penalties.
Then we get practical. We compare FreeAgent, Xero, and QuickBooks, and explain why many dentists will be fine on FreeAgent, especially when it is free via certain bank accounts. Clean bank feeds, correct import dates, and reconciling to statements are non‑negotiable. We show how to use built‑in tax forecasting to ring‑fence cash, reduce January shocks, and time pensions or equipment purchases with confidence. We also explore the structural choices: companies and partnerships sit outside this phase of MTD for now, but incorporation only makes sense when it aligns with tax, pension, and cashflow goals. For some on the cusp, MTD may be the nudge to reassess.
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Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education purposes only and does not constitute an investment recommendation or individual financial advice. For that, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. The views expressed on this channel may no longer be current. The information provided is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. Investment figures quoted refer to simulated past performance and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results/performance.
Hello everyone, good evening, and welcome to this webinar on something that is very much contemporary to us, dentist and very much on the tip of our tongue these days, and that is making tax digital. And there'll be a little bit of a mixed bag in the audience in terms of our understanding of making tax digital and what that is. There'll be some people who are curious, they've not even heard of it, they're completely new to it, and therefore they're uh they're an open book, they're a blank slate on that one. There'll be people who've heard of it and they're maybe like, hmm, what actually does that mean for me as a dentist? And then there'll be some people out there who know all about it, and they probably just want to ask a few specific questions and refine their knowledge. And no matter which category or bucket you sit in, we've got you covered tonight, which is the really cool part. So it's definitely going to be a fun webinar. I've been looking forward to this one for a little while. We're gonna set the record straight on making tax digital, what it is, how it works for dentists, and everything that you need to know on that subject. And I'm joined by my specialist accountant to dentist Mr. David Hossein. I'm also happy to share that there is free verifiable CPD associated with this podcast episode. Whenever you finish the episode, all you have to do is click the link in the podcast description. It'll take you right through to the Dentists Who Invest website. You'll be able to complete a short questionnaire, and once passed, you fill in your reflections, and we'll go ahead and email over to you your verifiable CPD certificate, which is entirely free. What that means is this podcast episode will be able to contribute towards your verifiable CPD hours during this learning cycle. David, again, there'll be some people in the audience who have met you, some people who have yet to know you, yet to get to know you. Maybe a good place to start is a little bit of an intro as to yourself, and then we can jump straight in on this one. We don't want to keep everybody waiting, we just want to get straight to the point, right?
David:Yes, absolutely. Thanks, James. And very topical. Um, obviously, it's coming up pretty quickly, so we've got to get into it. Um, so by myself, David is saying specialist dental account, and uh, we're based in Manchester, but we act for dentists um up down in the UK. So um, yeah, that that's that's us. Um and yeah, you're absolutely right. Making tax digital, it's been talked about forever. And in the accounting profession, we have actually been quite skeptical. Will it actually happen? Because it's been pushed back and back and back. Uh HMIC are great at having ideas about what should happen, and then being pretty poor at getting the software in place to implement it. But as we stand, it is about to go live in April 2026. Um, very, very relevant for a lot of dentists. So just thought we'd we'd run through it because I you know I get asked a lot of questions about it and thought, well, let's let's explain it to kind of make it clear for people. Um, so so what is it? It's it's a new reporting system. So it making tax digital already exists, so it's not actually something new, it already exists for VAT. So if you are VAT registered, so some people might have side businesses where they've got VAT or like you know, an aesthetics clinic, they already have to do a quarterly making tax digital return. And this is the extension of that from VAT now into um income tax, and it does only apply to income tax and sole traders, and that's the first thing to make clear. If so, from the 1st of April, um, if you are a sole trader doing a self-assessment tax return and you earn over £50,000 in income, this will apply to you, and you will now have to do a quarterly digital turn. It is happening. Um, everybody's had letters about it, so we we're having to kind of prepare for it now. So um obviously, as a firm of accountants, we we're here to help and kind of make sure people are compliant. So that was obviously point of today. So, well, let's explain what it is and what you need to be thinking about. So the headline is if you are a self-employed dentist and the majority of um associates will fall into this category, but also some practice owners will also be affected by this if they're not using a limited company. You now have to do a quarterly return HMRC. It's gonna be a nightmare. Any questions on that, James?
Dr James:Oh, sorry, I thought I wasn't uh I wasn't sure my internet was lagging there or you or you paused there. Uh it was hence my little delay. Uh no, all good so far, David. I think that's quite clear. I believe you have a presentation for this evening as well.
David:Yeah, I've got I've got the the key points, I've printed them out, so it's not going to be on screen today because it it kind of is it's quite concise, like what it is. It is literally that you have to do a quarterly return. Now, how you do it, and um yeah, there's some key figures with it. So, first of all, if you were Oh oh David, sorry to interrupt.
Dr James:Just before you come on to that, I just want to do a quick little bit of housekeeping just before we get into the meat and potatoes, is in the the subject content tonight. Guys, if anybody has any questions, there will be the opportunity for a QA uh towards the conclusion of the webinar. So we're gonna be broadcasting for 60 minutes in total this evening, so that'll take us right up to half eight. There is also free verifiable CPD available for this webinar this evening. Keep your eye on the Dentists Who Invest mailing list for that one to receive details on that. They're just a short little quiz you just have to fill in about the content tonight, and then we can go ahead and send over a certificate towards you so it counts towards your CPD in this learning cycle. And one final thing if there's any questions that we don't get to this evening because of time, feel free to reach out to David, David Hossine, or to accountants. And what that means is David can answer any specific questions that you have relevant to yourself on a one-to-one basis. But yeah, details on that will be coming a little bit later as well. Anyway, David.
David:Thanks, James. Um, yes, it's again so who's going to be affected? So HMRC is starting with um if you have income of over 50,000 pounds from self-employment, from April next year you'll you'll have to do uh this um quarterly return. So most dentists are already in that category anyway. But if I suppose people who might not be affected, if you're a hospital dentist and you do a little bit of practice work, and that practice work is less than 50,000, um, then you won't be caught by it. Um it does, however, also include all sources of of um income. So let's say you've got rental income, let's say you know you you're a hospital dentist and you do 25 grand worth of uh social income at practice, but you also have 25 grand worth of rental income. Both of those two things combined will mean you have to do uh we have to comply with making test digital. So this is going to catch a lot of people. Um for accountants, it's gonna be it's gonna be a nightmare. We're all kind of um trying to get ready to see how we can help people because it involves working together to get yourself set up. So the things you need to be doing, um, you will need to have a compliance software to allow you to submit the quarterly return. Now your accountant should be helping you with that, but it's something that you'll need to uh set up with them, it's not something they can do on their own. So you need to be kind of aware that there will come in the coming months, your accountant will probably be contacting you to say, look, you you are affected by this, you need to set this up with us, and then quarterly you have to do these quarterly returns. Um, that threshold, as I said, is £50,000 for 2026. It will uh the year after drop to 30 and to 20. So you can see HMRC are really keen to push this to catch everybody. Um, what it means in real terms is uh it's a it's a it's a quarterly tax return, it's sort of annual. So it's just admin, isn't it? It's admin for you, it's admin for us, it's just more kind of uh paperwork. They have not so one thing to make clear, they have not said that you have to pay your tax quarterly. So at the moment, there's no required to be paying quarterly as you go, unlike VAT. So obviously, when you do that, you pay quarterly. However, you know, as a betting man, I think that I'd be uh expecting HMRT to probably roll that out. Um, after the first year, I think the first year is going to be a bit of a beta phase from see can we get the returns in and deal with them? And then I would expect them to be asking for quarterly tax payments as opposed to biannual, which we've got at the moment.
Dr James:If you're a UK dentist and you wish to add to your verifiable CPD portfolio for this learning cycle, it's worth knowing that DentistWhoinvest has over a thousand minutes of free verifiable CPD on our website. Just simply head over to www.dentisthoinvest.com and hit the videoslash cpd tab, and you can go right ahead and help yourself to as much CPD as you need. You'll also find a link that takes you straight to the CPD section of the Dentists Who Invest website in the podcast description.
David:So, yeah, digital records become mandatory. So all kind of everything's we live in the age of the digital world now, so you have to have, as I say, a uh MTD compliant software. Um, for our practice, we are advising clients of two routes. Um Zero, if you want to use zero, that starts at a price of about 16 pounds a month. Um, unfortunately, there's a cost to these softwares, um, or free agent. Free agent is the other one that we're probably more leaning towards, mainly because, as the name says, it's free. So if you've got um a qualifying bank account, you can have a free software. Uh, that needs to be connected to your bank account that deals with your income expenses, and that data is submitted quarterly with a final return to reconcile everything. Um, it is a statutory requirement. So obviously, that means that if it's not done, there will be penalties, and this is the kind of worry that we've got is there are people that might not be aware that if you don't do this and you're not set up in time, then you will be getting penalties on a quarterly basis, and that's um not good for anybody. Um yeah, so from our side, we're obviously doing a lot of work internally to adapt our workflows to accommodate that. Um and yeah, working to get, you know, I think for us in February we'll be doing a big push on this to get those softwares uh set up for clients. Um yeah, so it it's got it's gonna be messy. It's gonna be messy, but it's it's something people really need to know about. Um that makes sense, James, so far. Any questions out from your side?
Dr James:All good so far, David. Yeah, and thank you. Listening, uh listening with interest.
David:Okay, no worries. So uh there there is some nuance to it. So as I say, it's it's only for the self-employed if you're a sole trader. Um, one of the questions we're getting asked by people is well, if it's only for sole traders, why not why not just set up a company and then I won't have to deal with it? Which the answer is yeah, that will work. So at the moment, HMRC have scrapped their own words, they have scrapped making tax digital for companies. So whilst we have it for VAT and for um now income tax self-assessment, corporation tax has been it, they could never get it off the ground in terms of software. So, as things stand, if you were to incorporate and use a company, you will drop out of this system. Um, whether you should do that or not is a bigger question around um tax planning. And if you uh you know if that aligns with your personal uh plans. You also need to think about if you're doing a lot of NHS work, obviously the loss of the superannuation. So I I wouldn't just do this just to get out of MTD, but we are getting a lot of inquiries, kind of people thinking, well, I've been thinking about incorporating for a while. Is now a time to uh to to make that decision. And if if you're gonna do it anyway, yes, now is the time to do that. Um so that's that's one point. Another kind of nuance to it is that funnily enough, it only applies to self-assessment and um a sole trader's tax return. If you are a partnership, and they do exist, we we we act for quite a number of partnerships. Um you don't you you're not caught by MTD, so partnerships are outside of it. Um that's primarily a software issue with HMRC, and I think that that's it's not been ruled out, but it will come in future. But they're they're quite a bit behind that. So if if you are and we have you know data practices who are in a partnership, you're okay, you don't need to worry about it. Um it does mean more admin, absolutely does. It needs more investment in software if you're going down the zero route. We are encouraging people to go with free agent, it's just why why give yourself an extra cost when you're not getting any benefit out of it. Um that said, is there any upside? So, yes, the government are pushing this as extra burden on businesses and self-employed, but one of the kind of civil lines we're trying to kind of get across to people is it might not be bad if you um now have a software that your accountant is updating for you regularly on a monthly or quarter basis, some of these softwares are pretty good, and like free agent has a section for your forecast tax bill. So that can be quite helpful. Um, because one of the challenges we find is obviously we tell people to put 35-40% of their tax uh their income aside for tax, but uh not everybody does that. But if you're now having to do your quarterly tax return, you can get a much clearer picture of your forecast tax bill. So those who are savvy and do kind of log into the system, you will be able to see your forecast tax bill a bit more clearer. So that that's the potential upside for people. Not saying it makes the whole thing worthwhile, but it's if you're gonna have to do it anyway, why not get that benefit if that makes sense? Um yeah, sorry, I just wanted to these uh well, so with the planning side, we've talked about companies and partnerships. Um there's not much really on this more, James, than that. It is literally just something that's on the horizon coming up in um in April. I can see we've had some questions though that if we could start with those, because some of them look pretty relevant about the banking side of it.
Dr James:Yeah, there's some popping in there. There's some popping in there. So, David, I think just before we move on to the the the questions that people are sending in, just a few things that I think would be extra useful to clarify for dentists. So just to reiterate, as things stand, if I've grasped this correctly, this only applies to people who are operating as a sole trader where their income, specifically income, exceeds 50k, therefore the basic tax rate, right?
David:That's a very good point. That's yeah, income not profits. Yeah, absolutely.
Dr James:Boom, exactly, right? Because obviously profits is different, right? Obviously, of course. So it's your turnover in a way, if you consider yourself a business. So, yeah, that was the one, because I remember someone else was talking to me about it, and that was one of the things that stuck with me. I was like, right, fine. And also, where we're determining income, that also from from um what I was told previously, and you can confirm this, that also includes rental income from properties, if they're held in your own name, of course. Yeah. Question, does that also include like dividends and cash flow from other assets if that's held in your personal name?
David:Uh no, it's no, no, it doesn't include dividends, no.
Dr James:Fine. So in that case, right, okay, fair enough. That makes sense. Okay, cool. So I'm I'm getting it a lot a lot more now. Um, but if you trade as a limited company, but you pay yourself out of the limited company over 50k, yeah, then would you have to do making tax digital then in that situation?
David:No, and that's that's a great question. I can see how that can be quite confusing. So I've kind of pushed over that. It's it's because dividends are not self-employed income, they are technically investment income. Um, so that this this isn't for um people who receive investment income, it's for a trade, and the trade of dentistry as a sole trade are qualified, but as you correctly point out, people have companies that draw more than 50, but they won't need to do that term quarterly return. It's it's it's not for companies and dividends.
Dr James:Brilliant. That's a great thing to clarify. And one other thing that came up in I was kind of chatting to a few accountants about this. A lot of accountants are wrestling with how they're gonna actually charge their clients for this because it's way more legwork for them, right? So the bills might have to go up.
David:Uh yes. So I was at the uh the Nanstile meeting in October, and obviously there's a lot of dental accountants there, and it it came up, and you know, the room was quite varied on what they'd be charging. Some people are charging four times what they currently charge. Um, some people, some people not. We're we're only adding a modest kind of increase to uh to accommodate a change in workflow. Um, I think we'd want to ease people into it as opposed to you know, because you know it is a burden for people. I think that if we if if accountants manage their workflow well, I think it can be accommodated, and we're we're kind of going down that route, not to kind of, you know, but there there is um yeah, but there is a variety out there, and and I will say, be fair to accountant, they have to do a lot more work now. So if your accountant is putting their fees up, I I empathize with that as a real way.
Dr James:Understood, but you believe the majority of the extra leg work can be offset by good SLPs on the accountant's side.
David:Yeah, I think the so we're kind of always um optimistic, and I think we're trying to see the silver lining for us as well. And one of the silver linings for us is that so now we're in November and it's our busy period, so a lot of people wait till they get close to the taxman deadline to give us all this information. So the team are quite busy this time of year. However, we're trying to see the positive side that if we change that for our and our associates are now sending the information quarterly, then it helps our workflow throughout the year. So there are positives for us as well. But it's the challenge will be getting over the hump of the first year, where it's new for us, new for um obviously clients as well. But there are potential upsides, and I'm an optimist, so we're we're trying to focus on the positive.
Dr James:Very good. And I just have two further questions which I think will be of benefit to the audience. So the first one was, and you said this earlier, you said that HMRC have scrapped this for limited companies or people who dentists who trade as limited companies just for the moment. So does scrapped mean that they've completely thrown it out the window, or does scrapped mean that they've delayed it slightly and just kicked the can down the road?
David:It's pause until further notice. Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean their language is quite I mean, they their their language is is scrapped, but I I don't see it's possible for them to have it for income tax and not include companies in it at some point. I think it's more that they're I think they've used that language because they pushed it back a year and then we were like, oh, maybe it's another year. I think it's like two to three because it it's more IT issues that they're struggling to solve, but it's it's still on their roadmap, I would think so. Because I don't I don't see how you could not do it if you're doing it for everybody else.
Dr James:Understood. So you believe it's still in the pipeline somewhere? Okay, fair enough. And then one other query I had. Oh man, I had a really good question. Oh, yeah, it's just come back to me. Where does bookkeeping software like Xero and QuickBooks fit in around this? Will that aid you as an accountant to process these quarterly tax returns? Is it is this even more important now than ever to have these bits of software?
David:It's a mandatory requirement. So you have to have a making tax digital um software. So you are either going down the route of zero, QuickBooks um and free agent. Those are the top three kind of in terms of what they can do. Um, I personally feel zero is more for businesses. Um for most associates, and I appreciate it's not just associates called by this, but for most associates, free agent is absolutely fine. And the forecast income tax uh calculator is really good. Um, and I don't think zeros is as good as that. So our preferred route for associates is the free agent side, uh, because it's it's probably free. One of the our preemptive questions here. So I think one of the questions we had for free agent was um, so let's if you have a NATO a metal bank account, you get it for free, and and if not, you have to pay. So some people might have a Lloyd's bank account and they want to have um free agent. And that's okay. You can have multiple bank accounts. You don't like as long as you've got one Metal account or one NatWest account, you still get it for free. Even if you're uninload's in the main, you just have to remember to put a bit of money in the metal account so it's it stays alive. So there are there are ways to get the free software, is what I'm trying to say.
Dr James:That's a flipping top tip right there. That's actually really useful. And you know what? You actually just inspired another question uh in my head just then when you were talking. And I don't really know the full ins and outs of this, and maybe you can confirm. The number of times I hear accountants complaining that their clients they have zero, but is not set up properly. I I've I've heard accountants moan and groan about this a little bit before, and I don't fully know what that means, if I'm honest with you, as in how it can be set up differently from one company to another, but I've just heard that this is a thing. So, do you think it's advisable to ask your accountant before you set up some of these softwares like free agent, or do you think that these things are so intuitive nowadays that pretty much anybody can do it and just go ahead and set it up themselves?
David:No, no, there are little twerks, but you know, kind of um nuances to it. Like one of the things is the dates that you set it up at, and so softwares have something called a bank feed, which is a technology that connects to your bank account with online banking login, but it's one-way communication. So, and by that it means that the transactions can come into Xero or free agent, but it but free agent and zero can't tell the bank to do something, it uses screen scraping technology, it's not perfect, but that's the mechanism to get the data in that's that's this the big easy sell for the software company. So when you set this up and it'll download transactions, um, it's not perfect. Um, and at the end of the year, we still do as a standard, we ask our clients just please give us a statement to check the closing balance to make sure everything's come through. Um, because that it you know it's not perfect. Um it's if you're setting it up yourself, just get your accountant to check it once you've done it. Because um it's one of those, if you set the date, the import date as today's date, you'll miss all the stuff. Like if we needed it from April and you do it in November, you still have to then manually load the rest of it. So um if you do connect it, get your account to check it before doing any bookkeeping on it yourself. That would be uh my advice.
Dr James:I'm glad I asked that then, because now I feel like I know what they're getting uh a little bit more. And just one more question on my you hear me? Yeah, I thought I thought I said my connection was unstable there for a second. Uh, one more question on the bookkeeping software. Aside from monitoring our transactions and reconciling them with receipts and invoices so we know what's tax deductible and what is a business expense. Is there anything else that we should be doing in our bookkeeping software? Are those the main things?
David:Yeah, well, the requirement is to record your income and expenses correctly and submit them. Um that that's the the requirement. Whether what you should be doing, I I think as I said before, take advantage of you know, you're now being forced to do this thing coarsibly, whether you like it or not, and please do, because the penalties will rack up. Um, we we see that with VAT. Um, but take the benefit of having something like a forecast tax bill there and um also forecasting your income. You know, um, we get a lot of inquiries in March about how much should I put into a pension, how much should I be thinking about investing in assets, and that's the positive now because we're having to do the data, we can have these conversations much um more accurately. So yeah, you're gonna have to do it, so you might as well use it.
Dr James:Very nice. Okay, I'm really gonna ask in that case, okay, guys. Out to the audience. So we're gonna throw the mic out to the audience for any questions that they might have. So there's a few questions in the chat here coming in thick and fast. We can go on for as much as 60 minutes this evening. Question in feel free to put it in the chat noise so we can 100% get to it. Anyway, looking at the questions in the chat. Very first one uh that we've got that's come up here is from she tell shout out to she tell. She tell asks, do you need a separate business bank account for dental income and one for rental income, or is one account for both allowed?
David:That's a brilliant question. And the the honest answer is there's a bit of confusion. So um important to say, so HMRC bring out the rules, they build the software around what they think the rules are, us as accountants try to implement them, and then they've always missed something and something falls over. So I expect caveat this thing you're asking now is probably where they've not built it properly. Because the the question that I've seen accountants asking HMRC is um and they've not clearly answered is is it one return for um the sole trade income and one return for rental, or is it combined? So think about that. If you've got uh rental income and the sole trade business, is it four returns or is it eight returns? And they've not clearly said um a clear answer, and I think they're pushing the answer to that on the software. So when we start to do these, um we we might see this these sorts of things um become a problem. But from a banking perspective, which is what the question is, from a banking perspective, it's fine to have one bank account, it's not an issue. We just need to make sure the software providers have done their bit. So be careful. And this is where you've got to choose a reputable software provider, which is why I'm comfortable saying free agent, they've built their whole business model on MTD. So I think they're they're very well uh set up to deal with it.
Dr James:Very nice. And just to clarify, I know it says business bank account here, but we're referring to specifically sole traders and not companies, right? Yes, yeah, correct. Okay, just to clarify, even though it says business, just a good one to make sure everybody's on the same page in that one. Okay, fine. Next question is from uh Nuwanthi Nansen. Uh, shout out Nuwanthi. Will uh so I'm gonna read these questions out just as just as they come. Uh, will a rental mortgage and payments associated with any rental income need to come out of the same account that the dental income and business costs also come out of? With me so far? Following me so far? Uh so next part out of this question is so that the software captures it. I think that's that's the first question, and then there's a further one. Do you want me to read it out again?
David:Uh no, you you could I can I can I'll give it a go because I can see it on screen as well. Um I just closed it. So will a rental mortgage and payments associated with the rental income need to come out the same accounts? Um it it doesn't have to. So one of the so again, these are these are banking questions, and the software companies um are good enough to figure these out. So it's okay if you've got two bank accounts, those two accounts can be connected to one software. You can have we have some clients with 10 bank accounts all connected to one zero or one free agent, and that's okay. So I don't think you need to make any changes on your banking side, so it's absolutely fine the way it is. Uh, when it comes to jointly owned property, this is another nuance to it. So jointly owned could mean partnership, right? And we said that partnerships are not caught by MTT, right? So that's an area that um we are getting questions at well, why don't I register my um rental business as a partnership? Um yeah, that that would be potentially something to to not mean you have to report that if you're having to do it anyway for your uh your sole trade or associate income, well it doesn't it doesn't kind of um solve the problem. But if if it's the rental profits that push you over, you can register that as a partnership. You then have to obviously uh tell HMRC and do partnership accounts, it's it's not too much more complicated, but it it is possible. But talk it through the accountant.
Dr James:Good stuff. By the way, please do let us know, guys, if these answers give you what you want from your questions. Feel free to pop it in the chat if you need any more detail or clarification, anything that we say. Anywho, moving on. Next question is from Martin Keene. If I'm inputting my figures quarterly myself, do I still need an accountant?
David:No, you don't. Uh it and that's um that's the answer. You you don't uh you do not need an accountant to do this for you, but if you don't do properly, penalties and interest apply. So it's uh it's what's the best use of your time. And I think that I would see what the cost benefit to you is. Um, we're not putting a large increase, it's a modest increase from our standard fees. So it's whether it's worth your time to do it. And I think if you are committing to do it, it's also one of those things where if you if you forget or one the day you leave to do it, you have an emergency at the practice and you you you forget it. That the saving to you is all eaten by penalties. So just you can do it, and I'm not trying to you know put people off. But my experience for clients have tried to do things themselves, it's it was always just better for them to let us do it uh ourselves. But if you're very diligent and on top of things, you can absolutely do it yourself.
Dr James:Thanks, David. Next question, Peter Farrell. What opening and closing dates are used for the first quarterly return, and when is that first return due?
David:Very good question. So it so it starts on the 6th of April to the 5th of July. That's the first quarter. So it is a quarter, and the return is due um on the 7th of August. So it's you get um a full month and uh yeah, a month and a few days to get it done. So 7th of August 2026 is the date you have to have submitted it by. You can obviously submit it from the 6th of July. So the day after the end of that quarter, you you can submit it, um, which would be better.
Dr James:Nice one. Thank you for that, David. By the way, guys, coming up to the conclusion of the questions very soon. So it is worth mentioning if anybody's got any more specific questions, I guess, to their own circumstances or anything that they'd rather keep private. We will put a link that you can use to talk to David in the chat in just a moment. You can go right ahead, click the link, fill in a little bit of information about yourself, and David will get back to you. That'll be coming up very soon. So it is worth mentioning. Is that anyway? Moving on to the next question from Amrit Pal. Amrit Pal asks, if you have only one bank account as a soldier for personal use and business use together, how are expenses differentiated on the software? Or do I need a separate account for dental associate costs?
David:Ideally, yes. Um, because if you think about the workflow on our side, if if we've got all the transactions that include same spirits, Tesco, and everything, it it makes the work a lot more. So where we're trying to commit to a uh a modest increase, we we would be asking people to have that separate bank account. You don't need to close your existing account, but it's um and and and also it might help you get the free software to have like a metal or a network account specifically for um that work. So uh yes, please is our answer. It's better to have a separate business account for you.
Dr James:You know what? Can I ask a question, David? And this may be relevant or it may not be relevant, but what I want to ask is is there any is there any um bank that you find is superior for this in terms of its ability to communicate to the account bookkeeping software or the all much of a muchness? There's not any out there that you're like, hmm, this one is by far and away better than the rest, or does that matter? Does that make a difference?
David:I I I don't um yeah, I don't get any feedback about this particular bank is is a problem. No.
Dr James:Okay, good to know. Always good to ask. Anyway, do I need a business account? I have personal accounts, but I would be better off getting a business account with the new system in mind.
David:Yeah, so similar to the previous question. I think yes, better. And again, kind of bring it back to a positive. With the software giving you a forecast tax bill, if you open, let's say, a Metal or NATO account and you see you know you can transfer your tax money into that account. So then you've got, in terms of managing personal finances, you set it up and use it for cash flow planning. So you've got clarity personally on what money's um yeah, money's yours and what's the tax fund.
Dr James:Brilliant. All right, well, guys, listen, I hope that helped a lot with questions. So, David, just clarifying, and you may have said this, but just to make this 100% clear, this is something that we need to worry about. It's on our tax returns. It'll it won't be until later next year. Have I got that right?
David:Yeah, so right now everybody's yeah, right now, and everybody, a lot of people will still be dealing with their tax term 24, 25. That's due in uh January. So accountants and clients were all kind of trying to get that um dealt with. This kicks off, as I say, for the 6th of April, 2026. But you know, you the the typical tax deadline is that's due in uh January 2027, but it's now changed that now. We've got a quarter return to due by the 7th of August. It doesn't change, as I said, it doesn't change the tax payment deadline. So we still have January, July, January to pay the tax, it's just an additional four submissions, and we've got to deal with it. So yeah, it is something we've got to start thinking about. I would personally my advice if you would be budget sometime in February because that, like in terms of our workflow, we're planning February is our implementant to implementation stage to get the software set up with clients. So if you are um affected and a lot of associates will be as well as you know, practice owners, then yeah, put some time aside to tail it.
Dr James:Very good. Okay, fine. Good to know. I think that we have covered pretty much everything there is to know on this topic. I guess one more thing to ask would be, David. Obviously, I know that you do the tax planning side of things as well as just people's accounts. Do you envisage that this will mean that you might advise some people to go limited just cheerly because of the amount of extra paperwork and effort this is going to be? Let's say they're just on the cusp where it makes sense financially. Will this make you tip tip tip it over the edge in terms of you saying actually now is the time? Do you feel like it's gonna be a factor, like it's gonna be that onerous?
David:So it's a great question, and we are seeing this amongst clients who have been thinking about Goid Incorporated for a while because we've done the numbers and it aligns with uh financial plan and strategy, but for whatever reason they've been busy and not got around to it. Now they are saying, yep, don't want to deal with this. Um let's let's get on with the company now. Um, so that there's a lot of um yeah, activity in that side. But I I don't think people will do this just to get out of having to do the return because having a company, if you draw all the money out, can mean you pay more tax, so it does need to be looked at properly. Um, but if you are in the cusp and or you've been thinking about it, I I would say it's time to re-reassess that decision.
Dr James:Interesting. So it might tip you, it's not the sole factor, but it might just tip you over the edge a little bit, which is understandable, really, because it's now become less effort uh in those situations to just have a company. Okay, fair enough. Well, David, thank you so much for your time this evening and your wisdom and your insight as ever. If anybody wants to get all of you to ask any personal questions that they might have off the back of this webinar, where are they best off finding you, David?
David:Uh so yeah, you could contact me at David@ortu.uk Um, our firm's called autoadvisors, auto.uk. Um contact us through the website, we've got WhatsApp channels, and um I think there's a link in the chat box as well. So through the Dentists Who Iinvest website, I think you guys can also put us in touch if we can help.
