VAT – What can you do to avoid a shock bill

Almost every business in the UK with revenues exceeding £85,000 in the previous 12 months must apply to register for VAT, with most businesses haviing to submit VAT returns to HMRC on a quarterly basis.  This is the VAT threshold for the 2019/2020 tax year but can change year on year.

To avoid having to face a VAT bill that you cannot afford to pay you can set up a seperate bank account to act as VAT savings.  It is easy to spend additional money that you have in your business account before the time comes for your VAT quarter, however by having a seperate account for VAT you will know exactly how much you have put away ready for your submission.  Online business accounts such as Tide can be set up in a few minutes and can be used to set aside your money each month – to register a tide account click here.

Please make sure that you are sending us through all your invoices on a regular basis and responding to your weekly query sheets.  We do this to make sure that we have all the relevant information required to process your VAT return.  Failing to keep up to date with our requests can result in VAT submissions being sent without everything we require to calculate a true VAT total.

You certainly don’t want to be paying more than you have to!!  It is very important that we file your VAT submissions on time, thus avoiding potential late filing penalties imposed by HMRC.

If you have any questions in relation to VAT, or anything else for that matter please do not hesitate to contact our friendly team who are more than happy to help.