Value Added Tax

Verifying a VAT number before reclaiming VAT can protect your business from rejected claims, repayments, and unnecessary penalties.

The online service for checking a UK VAT number is available at www.gov.uk/check-uk-vat-number. This online tool allows businesses and individuals to verify the legitimacy of a UK VAT registration number, helping to ensure that the information provided by suppliers or customers is accurate and up to date.

By using the online service, users can confirm whether a VAT number is valid and view the registered business’s name and address, providing reassurance when entering into new commercial relationships.

In addition to basic verification, the service enables UK taxpayers to download an official certificate confirming that a VAT number was valid at a specific date and time. This certificate can be retained for audit records, offering valuable evidence in the event of future HMRC queries. Having accurate documentation is especially important when dealing with unfamiliar or newly established suppliers, where the risk of error or deliberate fraud can be higher.

Checking a VAT number can help avoid costly mistakes. If a VAT number is invalid and you have reclaimed input VAT on related purchases, HMRC may refuse the claim and can also seek repayment of VAT, potentially resulting in financial penalties.

For eligible businesses, the VAT Annual Accounting Scheme can reduce paperwork, smooth cash flow and replace quarterly returns with a single annual submission.

The VAT Annual Accounting Scheme is open to most businesses with a taxable turnover of up to £1.35 million per year. Businesses using the scheme are required to submit one VAT return per year, rather than quarterly returns. This can significantly reduce the administrative time and cost associated with preparing and filing your VAT returns.

The scheme also allows businesses to make regular interim payments throughout the year, which can help with cash flow management. Interim VAT payments are made during the year based on the business’s estimated total VAT liability for the accounting period.

Interim payments can be made either monthly or quarterly and are followed by a final balancing payment submitted with the annual VAT return. The regular payments are usually based on the previous year’s VAT liability, which means they may be higher than necessary if turnover has fallen.

Where payments are made monthly, they are typically calculated as 10% of the estimated annual VAT bill and are due at the end of months 4 through 12 of the VAT accounting period. Where payments are made quarterly, they are usually calculated as 25% of the estimated VAT liability and are due at the end of months 4, 7 and 10.

The final balancing payment for the annual VAT return is due within two months of the end of the standard 12-month VAT accounting period. If VAT has been overpaid based on the estimated amounts, HMRC will refund the difference. Payments must be made electronically.

VAT road fuel scale charges are fixed, standardised amounts that businesses must use to account for output VAT when they provide fuel for private use in a vehicle that is also used for business purposes.

The VAT road fuel scale charges are published annually with the current figures applying from 1 May 2025 to 30 April 2026. The fuel scale rates are designed to encourage the use of cars with low CO2 emissions.

A business can use the VAT fuel scale charges to work how much VAT they need to pay back when a business car is used for private journeys. This approach removes the need to keep detailed mileage records. In practice, businesses should reclaim all the VAT on the fuel for the car, then use the fuel scale charge tool to work out the correct charge for the period. Once calculated, this amount needs to be included in the VAT owed on the VAT Return.

Where the CO2 emission figure is not a multiple of five, the figure is rounded down to the next multiple of five to determine the level of the charge. For a bi-fuel vehicle which has two CO2 emissions figures, the lower of the two figures should be used. There are special rules for cars which are too old to have a CO2 emissions figure.

Many businesses are still unaware that the VAT late filing and late payment rules now operate on a points-based system, where repeated delays can quickly lead to a £200 penalty and added interest.

The VAT late filing penalties regime changed for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2023. Under the new system, there are penalty points for late filing of VAT returns and for the late payment of VAT liabilities.

The revised system operates on a points-based approach. A taxpayer receives one penalty point for each VAT return that is submitted late. Once a specific threshold of points is reached, a financial penalty of £200 is charged and the taxpayer is notified.

The penalty thresholds based on VAT return frequency are as follows:

• For monthly VAT returns, the threshold is five penalty points
• For quarterly VAT returns, the threshold is four penalty points
• For annual VAT returns, the threshold is two penalty points

For example, a business that files VAT returns on a quarterly basis will receive a £200 penalty once it accumulates four late submission points. To remove the penalty points and return to a clean compliance record, the taxpayer must submit all VAT returns on time for a continuous period of twelve months. There are also statutory time limits after which a penalty point cannot be issued for a particular late return.

Late payment penalties are applied separately. If VAT remains unpaid between 16 and 30 days after the due date, a first penalty of 2% of the outstanding tax is charged. If the VAT is still unpaid 31 days or more after the due date, a second penalty of 4% of the outstanding amount applies.

In addition, late payment interest is charged from the day payment becomes overdue until it is paid in full.

HMRC has published a new Revenue and Customs Brief on the VAT treatment of early termination fees and similar compensation payments following recent judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). HMRC has said that this will impact anyone who charges their customers to withdraw from agreements to supply goods or services.

Previous HMRC guidance said when customers are charged to withdraw from agreements to receive goods or services, these charges were not generally for a supply and were outside the scope of VAT.  

Following the CJEU judgements, HMRC is of the opinion that these charges are normally considered as being for the supply of goods or services for which the customer has been contracted. Most early termination and cancellation fees are therefore liable for VAT. This is the case even if they are described as compensation or damages. 

HMRC guidance on charges described as compensation or early termination fees in a contract, have been changed to make it clear that they are generally liable for VAT. This marks a significant change from HMRC’s previous position that early termination payments described as compensation payments would ordinarily not be subject to VAT.

A business that has failed to account for VAT on such fees should correct the error unless a specific ruling has been obtained from HMRC stating that such fees are outside the scope of VAT. 

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 how much input tax is recoverable.

HMRC’s guidance explains that as a VAT-registered business, you can recover the VAT on your purchases which relates to taxable supplies that you make or intend to make. There are some items where input tax recovery is ‘blocked’. Supplies that are made outside the UK that would be taxable if in the UK and certain exempt supplies to non-EU customers also give the right to recover VAT, but there are special rules. In principle, you cannot recover VAT that relates to any exempt supplies, although you may be able to if the VAT is below certain limits.

There are a number of partial exemption methods available. The standard method of recovering any remaining input tax is to apply the ratio of the value of taxable supplies to total supplies, subject to the exclusion of certain items which could prove distortive. The standard method is automatically overridden where it produces a result that differs substantially from one based on the actual use of inputs. It is possible to agree a special method with HMRC.

The VAT incurred on exempt supplies can be recovered subject to two parallel de-minimis limits.

HMRC has updated its guidance on the VAT partial exemption treatment relevant to businesses who supply goods by way of hire purchase agreements. A policy paper entitled Revenue and Customs Brief 8 (2020): change to partial exemption VAT treatment was first published on 10 June 2020 and updated on 20 August 2020.

The policy paper was released following the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgment C-153/17 Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Ltd.

HMRC’s view is that a business supplying goods on hire purchase should be allowed input tax recovery on its overheads where the recovery is fair and reasonable. It does not follow that the recovery will simply be fifty-fifty.

In the policy paper, HMRC provides details of its recommended method for an output values-based method of apportionment of VAT incurred on overheads. The method set out is HMRC’s preferred industry method but is not compulsory and businesses can continue to apply any fair and reasonable partial exemption method already agreed with HMRC.

Under standard VAT accounting, you pay VAT on your sales regardless of whether your customer has paid you. Under the Cash Accounting Scheme, VAT does not need to be paid over until your customer has paid your invoice.

Your business can enter this scheme provided your estimated VAT taxable turnover for the next VAT year is not more than £1.35 million. You can continue to use the scheme until the VAT taxable turnover exceeds £1.6 million.

Using cash accounting may help your cash flow, especially if your customers are slow payers. If a customer never pays you, you do not have to pay VAT on that bad debt as long as you continue to use the Cash Accounting Scheme.

However, there are downsides to the use of this scheme. For example, you cannot reclaim VAT on your purchases until you have paid your suppliers. This can be a disadvantage if you buy most of your goods and services on credit. The scheme is also not advised if you regularly reclaim more VAT than you pay. You will usually receive your repayment later under cash accounting than under standard VAT accounting unless you pay for everything at the time of purchase.

If you are interested in using the scheme we can help you crunch the numbers to see if this is a viable option for your company.

To accommodate coronavirus disruption HMRC temporarily changed the time limit from 30 to 90 days for notifying a VAT option-to-tax for land and buildings. This extension was set to expire on 30 June 2020 but has been extended to 31 October 2020.

The option to tax rules allows businesses to make an election to standard rate the supply of most non-residential and commercial land and buildings. This means that subsequent supplies by the person making the option to tax will be subject to VAT at the standard rate.

The ability to convert the treatment of VAT exempt land and buildings to taxable can have many benefits. The main benefit is that the person making the option to tax will be able to recover VAT on costs (subject to the usual rules) associated with the property including the purchase and refurbishment of the property.

However, any subsequent sale or rental of the property will attract VAT. Where the purchaser or tenant is able recover the VAT charged this is not normally an issue. However, where the purchaser / tenant is not VAT registered or not fully taxable (such as bank) the VAT can become an additional (non-recoverable) cost.

Once an option to tax has been made it can only be revoked under limited circumstances. This includes within a specified 'cooling off' period in the first 6 months. An automatic revocation applies where no interest has been held for more than 6 years and after 20 years has elapsed.