29.4%. That’s how much of my life I have spent in the industry and with tmgroup and I’m heading to another year celebration. I remember going to the head office for my interview in a building surrounded by trees, which sadly made way for our need to use our cars and park them. Whilst musing over how much a loaf of bread cost in those days and that you don’t get much for a shilling now (I’m not quite that old!) it took me back to how things were and how much they’ve changed…
The advance in technology has had a huge impact in conveyancing as it has in all industries
We seemed to go from paper search requests to electronic almost overnight, creating digital plans with drawing tools and whizzy things that could tell us about an area of the country we’d probably never heard of before let alone knew anything about. Technology becomes a victim of its own success and the more it can give us the more we want, expect and demand. I’m proud to see my company not only move with the times but be ahead of them.
Post-Completion is a good example. We’ve seen the time taken to complete the forms reduced to minutes as they can be done electronically and submitted with one button. No more paper forms, the tmconvey platform is interactive and brings in the SDLT1-4 when needed and the SDLT5 certificate returns electronically.
Times are a-changing and following a lengthy consultation, the 14-day SDLT payment window is coming in on 1st March.
Why are these changes being introduced?
The new payment window is being introduced to help further improve SDLT submission. It should hopefully also bring more consistency to the industry by encouraging firms to use the latest technology to save time and reduce risk.
This is a big step forward and reflects the changes and advances in technology, although I’m sure it will be the cause of anxiety for some firms.
One of the areas that seems to be of concern with firms is visibility and transparency (big buzz-words at the moment) and our Post-Completion services give you this. You can see the dates, times, submission status (and more) making it easy to keep your eye on that 14-day submission on the horizon.
Our integrated Post-Completion services have already saved lots of time for firms – including Cox Hodgetts LLP, who now receive the SDLT5 forms direct to the tmconvey platform within seconds of submitting their SDLT forms.
They also find it quicker and easier to submit their SDLTs as our intelligent forms only present the fields they need to populate, reduce the risk of sections being missed and errors being made – even on more difficult cases.
That’s not all. When cases are created on the tmconvey platform, it provides a seamless link with the Post-Completion forms to pre-populate information, which saves time and reduces the risk of re-keying errors. We’re also introducing look-up features for finding additional information to save checking separate websites, which will further reduce the time to submit, as well as the potential for error.
The best bit? SDLT submission via tmconvey’s Post-Completion service is available free of charge to all customers using the tmconvey platform and services, so you don’t have to worry about HMRC’s anticipated on-going costs of “amending systems and/or processes to ensure returns are filed and payments are made within the 14 day deadline”.
What happens next?
Just to remind you, the measure reduces the time limit that purchasers have to file a SDLT return and pay the tax due from 30 days to 14 days – and will apply to transactions with an effective date on or after 1st March 2019.
If you’re worried about meeting the new deadline, about to launch into a ‘pesky technology’ tirade or just want to find out more about how the latest technology can help save your team time, why not take a look at tmconvey’s Post-Completion services, request a FREE demo, or send me an email at Alex.Jackson@tmgroup.co.uk.
With thanks to Alex Jackson, Senior Account Manager at tmgroup
