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UK VAT for Businesses: HMRC Notices

HMRC's official VAT guidance for UK businesses: the main VAT guide (Notice 700), VAT rates by goods and services, filling in VAT returns, invoices and record keeping, the Flat Rate and Cash Accounting schemes, and place-of-supply rules for cross-border services. For business owners, bookkeepers and accountants. Curated by Kopik from public sources: HM Revenue & Customs via GOV.UK (OGL v3).

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Les réponses sont rédigées par un modèle de langage à partir des seuls documents de cette base, avec leurs sources numérotées. Elles peuvent être inexactes et ne constituent pas un conseil juridique, médical ou financier : vérifiez les sources avant toute décision importante.

This assistant answers practical questions about UK VAT for business owners, bookkeepers and accountants. Its answers come from HMRC's own guidance published on GOV.UK: the main VAT guide (Notice 700), the VAT rates list, the notices on VAT returns, record keeping, the Cash Accounting and Flat Rate schemes, and the place of supply of services. Ask in plain English and you get the relevant rule along with the notice it comes from.

Which VAT rate applies to what you sell

If you're registered for VAT, you charge VAT when you make taxable supplies, and the rate depends on the type of goods or services. Some supplies are exempt or outside the scope of UK VAT, in which case no VAT is charged.

HMRC's rates list gives many concrete examples. Books, newspapers, magazines, maps and printed music are zero-rated (although items such as exercise books, letterheads and posters are standard-rated). Children's clothes and footwear are zero-rated, while children's car seats, booster seats and booster cushions are at 5%, as is the supply and installation of certain mobility aids for customers aged 60 or over.

These rates often depend on conditions: who is buying, where the supply takes place, how the goods are presented for sale, and whether you hold the right evidence and records. The assistant points you to the specific VAT notice behind each rate.

VAT invoices and how long to keep records

Only VAT-registered businesses can issue VAT invoices. If you supply standard-rated or reduced-rated goods or services to another VAT-registered person, you must issue one, normally within 30 days of the date you make the supply.

For supplies of £250 or less (including VAT), you can issue a simplified invoice showing your name, address, VAT registration number, the time of supply, a description of the goods or services and, for each rate, the total amount payable including VAT. Above £250, a full or modified VAT invoice is needed.

As a general rule, you must keep all business records for VAT purposes for at least 6 years. Records used for other taxes may need to be kept longer. If you're required to keep digital records, your VAT account will be your electronic account in functional compatible software.

Cash accounting: pay VAT when your customers pay you

Under normal rules, you account for VAT on a sale when you issue the invoice, even if the customer hasn't paid. The Cash Accounting Scheme lets you account for output VAT based on payments you receive instead, and you reclaim VAT on purchases only once you've paid your supplier.

You can join if you expect taxable supplies of £1.35 million or less in the next year, have no VAT Returns outstanding and meet the other conditions in Notice 731. You can stay in the scheme until your annual taxable supplies reach £1.6 million.

HMRC notes the scheme can help cash flow if you give customers extended credit or suffer many bad debts, but may bring no benefit if you're usually paid straight away or often reclaim more VAT than you pay.

Mistakes, assessments and VAT before registration

Generally, errors can only be corrected for accounting periods ending in the last 4 years. HMRC also does not make assessments more than 4 years after the end of the relevant period, except in special cases such as fraud, where the limit is 20 years.

When you register, you may be able to reclaim VAT on goods supplied up to 4 years before registration, and on services supplied up to 6 months before, subject to the conditions in Notice 700.

If you do not claim input tax on the return for the period in which you were first entitled to deduct it, HMRC treats this as an error: you cannot simply deduct it on a later return, and must correct it under the error correction rules in Notice 700/45.

Questions fréquentes

How do I work out the VAT included in a VAT-inclusive price?

Use the VAT fraction rather than the rate. With VAT at 20%, the fraction is 20/120, which is one-sixth. For example, on a sale price of £2.40 including VAT, the VAT is 40 pence.

Can I write my VAT invoices in a language other than English?

Yes. Notice 700 allows invoices in another language, but you must be able to provide English translations of specific invoices within 30 days if an HMRC officer asks for them.

Can I join the Cash Accounting Scheme with past effect?

No. HMRC states that you cannot apply the Cash Accounting Scheme retrospectively to your business. If you later find it of no benefit, you can leave at the end of a VAT accounting period and return to normal accounting.

What happens if I don't pay a supplier for a long time after reclaiming the VAT?

Under Notice 700, for supplies received on or after 1 January 2003, you must repay input tax you've reclaimed if you have not paid your supplier within 6 months of the relevant date set out in the notice.

Can small petty cash purchases be recorded as one entry in digital records?

Yes. Notice 700/21 lets businesses record petty cash purchases with a VAT-inclusive value below £50 as a total value and total allowable input tax, rather than one by one, subject to a monetary limit.

Do I need to keep digital records once I deregister from VAT?

No. After deregistration you no longer need to keep digital records in functional compatible software. However, Notice 700/21 says you must still retain your VAT records for the required period.

Pour les développeurs et les agents

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Adresse du serveur MCP de cette base (outils ask_base et search_base) :

URL MCP
https://kopik.io/api/mcp?base=uk-vat-guide-hmrc
Claude Code, Cursor et autres clients
Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http kopik-uk-vat-guide-hmrc "https://kopik.io/api/mcp?base=uk-vat-guide-hmrc" --header "Authorization: Bearer kpk_…"
Configuration JSON (mcpServers)
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kopik-uk-vat-guide-hmrc": {
      "url": "https://kopik.io/api/mcp?base=uk-vat-guide-hmrc",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer kpk_…"
      }
    }
  }
}

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curl
curl -X POST https://kopik.io/api/v1/bases/uk-vat-guide-hmrc/query \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer kpk_…" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"question": "Votre question ici", "mode": "answer"}'

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