“Vat Specialists” VAT is a complex tax and rates may be on the product or service being sold or claimed. Therefore, most businesses struggle to keep up with its latest regulations.
Our VAT specialists help you keep in touch with your VAT requirements and pay no more tax than you have to. We have a number of years’ experience in helping companies meet their VAT obligations. These are just a few examples but do get in touch with one of the team if you have a question that specifically pertains to something.
“Vat Specialists” VAT REGISTRATION
Registration is one of the cornerstones of the UK VAT regime and is one area of compliance our experienced team deal with on a daily basis.
Anyone undertaking a business activity must think about whether to register or not for VAT. The three main reasons to register are if:
turnover in taxable supplies exceeds the threshold, when registration is compulsory
turnover is below the threshold, but registering is nevertheless advisable in order to recover VAT on expenditure, make supplier dealing simpler or enhance the standing of the business
the business has not yet commenced trading but would like to recover VAT on the cost of setting up.
Registration for VAT is a formal and tightly regulated process in the UK and is a great deal less simple than it appears. There is also an expensive and rather inflexible regime of penalties for late registration.
So registration, which in theory must be a simple procedure, may in practice turn out to be cumbersome and costly.
Our VAT Experts have guided numerous hundreds of companies through VAT registration, and we are here to help you as little or as much as you would wish.
VAT SIMPLIFICATION SCHEMES
Having been registered for VAT, the company is subjected to a range of requirements such as filing VAT returns and retaining records.
We can help make it easier by suggesting simplification schemes such as:
the flat rate scheme
cash accounting
annual accounting.
We can guide you through the maze of schemes and qualification conditions to identify the most appropriate scheme(s) for you.
There are a number of other VAT schemes which may affect your business. The range of these schemes can be broader than their names imply. Professional advice is thus necessary.
The principal schemes are: “Vat Specialists”
Tour Operators Margin Scheme (TOMS)
margin schemes for second-hand goods, works of art, antiques and so on
domestic reverse charge accounting scheme applying to goods such as computers, computer chips and mobile phones
partial exemption
Capital Goods Scheme
option to tax in relation to commercial property
flat rate scheme for farmers
self-billing.
For the most part, VAT is a commercial issue and of no concern to anyone except the self-employed, but not entirely so. For instance, certain individuals can gain from reliefs like the DIY builder scheme or VAT relief for the disabled.
Complicated rules, severe penalty regimes, and strict record-keeping requirements are common features of all such schemes. Our VAT experts can help with all issues surrounding these schemes and guide you through the complexities.
COMPLIANCE AND PENALTIES
Compliance with the VAT regime is not an easy matter and it is peppered with penalty provisions intended to encourage ‘good behaviour’. Once a company gets involved in the penalty regime, things have a tendency to get out of control.
Whatever your situation, we can help you avoid:
late registration penalties, which can be 100%
a misdeclaration penalty of up to 100% for getting the VAT return figures wrong
surcharges of 2% to 15% for not filing returns and paying VAT on time.
Also, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) charges interest when you must pay money, but is only sometimes required to pay interest when money is owed to you.
Our rich VAT experience and familiarity with dealing with accounting systems and negotiating the VAT man can be invaluable.
MAKING TAX DIGITAL FOR VAT “Vat Specialists”
Making Tax Digital (MTD) is an existing Government goal to introduce an online tax payment and filing system. It also seeks to promote a move to digital record keeping. In the longer term, it’s intended all business taxes will be covered by MTD.
The Making Tax Digital Programme started in April 2019 with its first scheme – Making Tax Digital for VAT. In order to enable a smooth adoption, the Government introduced qualifying businesses in stages. Making Tax Digital for VAT requires a business to keep digital records and to use MTD-compatible software in order to file their VAT returns. All VAT registered businesses must meet the Making Tax Digital for VAT rules from 1 April 2022.
Our VAT specialist team have helped numerous companies to switch to digital record keeping and comply with Making Tax Digital for VAT. We can also guide you if exemptions are possible.
TRADING OR IMPORTING FROM EUROPE AND OTHER GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS
Since Brexit, UK businesses who trade abroad or who export and import goods from abroad have had more complex VAT-rules to conform with. We can help you describe the rules your business needs to comply with in respect of the territories, goods, and services your business is engaged with. We also help businesses register subsidiaries within the EU and elsewhere and how to designate a fiscal representative who will complete their VAT obligations in other jurisdictions.
PLANNING
There are a number of opportunities to structure your affairs to reduce the amount of VAT payable or increase the amount of VAT recoverable. These can be as straightforward as using the rules of continuous supply to delay the date when VAT becomes payable, or can involve sophisticated arrangements aimed at securing an absolute VAT saving.
Our VAT department has an ex-HMRC qualified anti-avoidance advisor within it, and as such, it is well placed to help you navigate your way through the maze that VAT planning activity has turned into over recent years.
VAT AUDITS AND HEALTH CHECKS
Our VAT department can help to streamline and check your VAT accounts in order to:
improve systems of compliance
prevent penalties
maximize input VAT recovery
minimize output VAT errors.
TRAINING AND PUBLICATIONS
If you simply want to learn more about VAT and how it will impact your business, we can provide tailored training and copies of useful VAT guides.
We also keep you up to date with the latest developments through notices on our website and a monthly column in our Shipshape magazines.
CAN WE HELP?
https://machinerylove.com/category/business-advice
Our VAT specialist team has helped clients across a wide range of business sectors for decades. The team provides guidance on everything from the basics of compliance to complex VAT planning.
We can also help with answering your queries on excise, inland customs, import, export and intra-EU dispatch, and arrival procedures and formalities.
To find out more, contact your usual Shipleys’ contact, or the specialists detailed on this page.