Quick answer: To pay your VAT bill, the fastest route is a bank transfer to HMRC's VAT account — sort code 08 32 00, account number 11963155, account name HMRC VAT — using your 9-digit VAT registration number as the payment reference. Faster Payments usually arrive the same or next day; Bacs takes 3 working […]
Read more →Quick answer: "Backdating" a VAT registration means two very different things. (1) You want to register now and reclaim VAT on past purchases: yes — you can reclaim VAT on goods bought up to 4 years before registration (if you still have them) and services bought up to 6 months before registration. (2) You've missed […]
Read more →Quick answer: When a UK business sells digital services — SaaS subscriptions, apps, downloads, streaming, online courses or e-books — VAT follows the customer, not the seller. Selling to a VAT-registered business? Charge no UK VAT; the customer accounts for it via reverse charge. Selling to a consumer? VAT is due in the consumer's country […]
Read more →Quick answer: VAT taxable turnover is the total value of your taxable supplies over a rolling 12-month period, excluding VAT itself. It includes sales at 20%, 5% and even 0% (zero-rated). It does not include exempt sales or income outside the scope of VAT. If it tops £90,000 at the end of any month, you […]
Read more →If you're thinking of turning a sole trader business into a limited company, you've probably wondered whether the company gets a different VAT deal: a different rate, a higher threshold? Here's the honest answer: the VAT rules themselves are identical. A sole trader and a limited company face the same £90,000 VAT registration threshold, the […]
Read more →Cancelling your VAT registration — deregistration — is a formal process with strict rules and strict timing. Get it right and you stop charging VAT cleanly, file one final return, and walk away clean. Get it wrong and you either keep charging VAT you no longer need to, or stop too early and owe HMRC […]
Read more →If you buy and resell second-hand goods, the normal VAT rules would be punishing. You bought an item from a private seller who never charged you VAT; sell it on for more and you owe 20% VAT on the full selling price, even though the item has already borne VAT once in its lifetime. For […]
Read more →If you sell goods or services in the UK that carry no VAT, you need to know exactly why they carry no VAT — because the reason changes everything about your business. In UK VAT law, "£0 VAT on the bill" can mean two completely different things: zero-rated or exempt. To the customer, they look […]
Read more →Normally, VAT follows a familiar pattern: the supplier charges VAT on the invoice and pays it to HMRC, while the customer reclaims it. The reverse charge turns this around — the customer accounts for the VAT instead of the supplier. The supplier invoices without VAT, and the customer declares the VAT and reclaims it on […]
Read more →Selling to customers in the EU raises one of the trickiest VAT questions a UK business faces: do you charge VAT, and if so, at what rate — or does the customer handle it? Since Brexit, the answer is a four-way matrix: goods or services, Great Britain or Northern Ireland, business or consumer, and — […]
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