New VAT penalty regime from 2023

A new VAT penalty regime will affect all VAT registered businesses from 1 January 2023. The changes will apply to the late submission and / or late payments of VAT returns for VAT return periods beginning on or after 1 January 2023.  Under the new regime, there...

Claiming back pre-trading VAT costs

There are special rules that determine the recoverability of pre-trading VAT costs. Pre-trading VAT costs describe VAT that was incurred before a business registered for VAT and is known as pre-registration input VAT. There are different rules for the supply...

VAT – partly exempt businesses

A business that incurs expenditure on taxable and exempt business activities is partially exempt for VAT purposes. This means that the business is required to make an apportionment between the activities using a 'partial exemption method' in order to calculate...

Check a UK VAT number

The ability to check a UK VAT number is available at: www.gov.uk/check-uk-vat-number. This service allows users to check: if a UK VAT registration number is valid; and the name and address of the business the number is registered to. The service also allows UK...

New VAT Registration process for agents

A new VAT registration process known as the VAT Registration Service or VRS was made available to agents from 1 August 2022. The VRS had been in testing mode for the previous 18 months and was used by over 37,000 businesses to successfully register for VAT. One of the...

VAT Flat Rate scheme

Using the VAT Flat Rate scheme, businesses pay VAT as a fixed percentage of their VAT inclusive turnover. The actual percentage used depends on the type of business. The scheme has been designed to simplify the way a business accounts for VAT and in so doing reduce...