Mitigating and Avoiding VAT Penalties

How to Avoid VAT Penalties

HMRC have become increasingly aggressive in their approach to applying penalties to VAT mistakes. So it makes sense to focus on this question of how to avoid VAT penalties or at least keeping them to an absolute minimum. A key […]

How Brexit changed UK VAT

In the space available this summary cannot hope to cover all of the VAT changes brought about by Brexit so you should think about your own situation in detail.  This short summary aims to cover some of the main variables […]

Careless or deliberate penalties?

How VAT penalties are calculated

How VAT penalties are calculated depends on how the error came about.  How did you come to make the mistake?  Essentially whether the VAT error was careless or deliberate.   The question of when an error should be treated as being […]

VAT claims on cars.

VAT claims on cars. Is it business or personal?

A refreshingly unexpected decision from the tribunal that three cars (an Audi A8, a Mini Cooper and a Porsche Cayenne), kept at the director’s home address were not available for private use – with the result?  Full input VAT recovery! […]

VAT claims blocked

What happens if your supplier’s invoice is wrong?

In a surprising case decided by the First Tier Tribunal, Sacutia Healthcare Ltd (TC06844) had its VAT claims blocked due to shortfalls in the supplier’s accounting procedures. This decision seems like an alarming shift in responsibilities surrounding VAT. Not only […]

Can VAT be reclaimed?

Can VAT be reclaimed?

Two very different cases through the VAT tribunal addressed the question of ‘Can VAT be reclaimed?’.  What was interesting was that both cases used the same tests to decide whether input VAT could be reclaimed and in one case whether […]