Negative Box 5 - Undefined Payment Indicator in Production

[AndyYouens]

Negative Box 5 - Undefined Payment Indicator in Production

[AndyYouens]

Can this be looked at instead of 'closing due to age'!

[hmrc-api-team]

Hey Andy, thanks for re-opening the issue to let us know it's still current.

The value in netVatDue (box 5) must be positive. It works the same way as the old paper forms. It is the difference between totalVatDue (box 3) and vatReclaimedCurrPeriod (box 4).

If the figure in totalVatDue is more than the figure in vatReclaimedCurrPeriod, the difference is the amount you must pay. If the figure in totalVatDue is less than the figure in vatReclaimedCurrPeriod we'll credit your account and repay the balance, subject to any enquiries we may need to make.

Payment indicator is randomised in Sandbox, the value changes between DD and BANK

[AndyYouens]

Thanks for the reply, and yes I understand the logic and have no problem with that.

My problem is if the amount due to HMRC in box 5 is negative, in the sandbox,a submission will return the payment indicator as Bank or DD , where as in production the payment indicator is not returned (therefore undefined). Can it return NULL?

With it not being returned in production is not the same as the sandbox, can they be synced so they both are consistant?

[hmrc-api-team]

Hi Andy

The description of the payment indicator is

Is DD if the netVatDue value is a debit and HMRC holds a Direct Debit Instruction for the client. Is BANK if the netVatDue value is a credit and HMRC holds the client’s bank data. Otherwise not present.

As an optional field, we would normally opt to always return it in the Sandbox to enable testing, as we couldn't cater for every scenario:

1. debit where HRMC hold direct debit instructions = DD
2. debit where HMRC doesn't = Not returned
3. credit where HMRC holds client bank data = BANK
4. credit where HMRC doesn't = Not returned

Additionally our stubbed backend used Sandbox is not currently able to calculate whether box 5 is a debit or credit.

I'll pass on the suggestion to enhance this to the MTD team. However, I wouldn't expect we'd touch it given the Sandbox response is a correct example of a Production response, and the Sandbox environment is not intended to provide a like-for-like Production experience.

Thanks

[hmrc-api-team]

Our team considers this issue resolved. Please use git to raise any new issues.