Accounting services in Abingdon, Oxford and across all UK

VAT return accountant UK

VAT return accountant UK in Oxfordshire, Abingdon, London, Oxford, England, Swindon, Didcot, Reading, Southampton, Bristol, Slough, Birmingham. If you are VAT registered and need your VAT returns completing we can do these for you. We are experts in completing VAT returns.  – Let us take this hassle away from you, we can:

  • Provide VAT Tax Advice
  • Help you register for VAT
  • Complete your VAT Accounting
  • Prepare and file your Tax Return

In 2019, around 2.7 million businesses in the UK were registered for VAT, which is usually charged at 20% on the sale of goods and services.
Most VAT-registered firms need to keep digital records of these sales, and file monthly or quarterly VAT returns using digital software under the Making Tax Digital (MTD) regime.
Unless HMRC has agreed your business is exempt from MTD for VAT, non-compliance penalties will kick in for accounting periods starting in April 2020.

Additionally from April 2020, HMRC will be moving to a points-based penalties system to encourage good taxpayer behaviour.

Your business must register for VAT when your taxable turnover has gone over £85,000 in the previous 12 months or you expect turnover to go over this threshold in the next 30 days.

Your business’s VAT taxable turnover is the total of everything sold that is not exempt.

You can register voluntarily, while you can also voluntarily deregister for VAT if your taxable turnover is less than £83,000.

Schemes exist to simplify accounting for VAT, including the cash accounting scheme, annual accounting scheme, and the flat-rate scheme.

VAT return accountant UK key considerations

  • Could your business use one of the simplified accounting schemes?
  • Does your business need to be VAT-registered?
  • Are you entitled to claim VAT bad debt relief?
  • Are you accounting for VAT correctly on the fuel used for private motoring? Should you be accounting for the appropriate scale charge?

The process for working out the VAT treatment of delivery charges can be quite complex.

We have listed below some of the main issues to bear in mind when deciding whether or not VAT needs to be applied.

  • No charge for delivery. HMRC’s guidance is clear that if delivery is free, or the cost is built into the normal sales price, VAT is accounted for on the value of the goods based on the liability of the goods themselves. This applies whether or not delivery is required under the contract.
  • Goods on approval. Where you are delivering goods on approval this service is not classed as delivered goods. In this case, the delivery service is a separate VATable supply.
  • Additional charge for delivery. There is a single supply of delivered goods for which the VAT liability is based on the VAT liability of the goods.
  • Delivery is not required. If delivery is not included in a contract to supply goods, then the delivery charge is liable to VAT at the standard rate irrespective of the VAT liability of the goods supplied. This assumes the delivery is within the UK.
  • Separate charge for packing. A separate packing service for which a charge is made will be standard-rated within the UK.
  • Food deliveries. The rules as to whether VAT is payable on delivery charges for food follows the VAT liability of the food. For example, the supply of hot takeaway food is usually standard-rated for VAT and a delivery charge would also be subject to VAT.

Where there is a mix of zero-rated and standard-rated items delivered, or where goods are delivered internationally, the situation can be more complex and further attention may be required…More

There are four conditions that must be satisfied in order for an activity to be within the scope of UK VAT. These conditions are that the activity:

  1. Is a supply of goods or services
  2. That the supply takes place in the UK
  3. Is made by a taxable person
  4. Is made in the course or furtherance of any business carried on or to be carried on by that person More

Changes in VAT penalties

The new system is points-based. This means that taxpayers will incur a penalty point for each missed VAT submission deadline. At a certain threshold of points, a financial penalty of £200 will be charged and the taxpayer will be notified. The threshold varies depending on the required submission frequency (monthly, quarterly, annual). For quarterly VAT returns, the penalty points threshold will be 4 points. The penalty points will reset to zero following a period of compliance, for quarterly returns this requires 12-months of compliance. There are also time limits after which a point cannot be levied. More

VAT – What cannot reclaim

You cannot reclaim VAT for:

  • anything that is only for private use;
  • goods and services your business uses to make VAT-exempt supplies;
  • business entertainment costs;
  • goods sold to you under one of the VAT second-hand margin schemes;
  • business assets that are transferred to you as a going concern. More

VAT – reverse charge apply

The specified goods that the reverse charge applies to are:

  • mobile phones
  • computer chips
  • wholesale gas
  • wholesale electricity


The specified services are:

  • emission allowances
  • wholesale telecommunications
  • renewable energy certificates
  • construction services More


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 More

The VAT Capital Goods Scheme (CGS) is a means of adjusting the initial VAT recovery in respect of certain assets over either 5 or 10 years. The scheme seeks to agree a fair and reasonable attribution of VAT to taxable supplies and non-taxable supplies relating to the use of an asset over its lifetime. https://oxonaccountancy.co.uk/vat-capital-goods-scheme-overview/

Get more stuff like this
in your inbox

Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.