Compliance

VAT compliance is an essential part of running any successful business. We offer clients comprehensive advice to not only meet legal requirements, but with a view to minimising costs where possible.

VAT Health Checks

We can help you to manage your clients’ VAT compliance obligations. For example, we regularly support clients in relation to:

VAT liabilities applied to income.

VAT return controls, processes, and procedures for the preparation of the VAT returns.

VAT treatment of non-mainstream transactions, e.g. cancellation charges, deposits, etc.

VAT recovery on general expenditure and employee expenses.

Land-related supplies and the option to the tax position.

Correspondence and interactions with HMRC.

Assistance with preparation, review, and submission of VAT returns.

Compliance with HMRC’s Making Tax Digital requirements, particularly in relation to the need for digital links.

How we've helped clients

Large automotive retailer

The situation

Following an HMRC VAT assurance visit, our client had material discrepancies in their VAT figures. HMRC issued protective assessments for £1.2 million and were seeking payment of the VAT due plus penalties and interest.

The challenges

The company had recently changed accounting systems and the implementation had not gone well. The integrity of the data was compromised and there had been little support in terms of staff training. The position was exacerbated by serious health issues faced by both the MD and FD of the company. As a result, the financial management and control environment weakened in the business.

Our solution

We performed a detailed review of the financial data to confirm the figures that should have been declared through VAT returns to HMRC. We demonstrated to HMRC's satisfaction that the liability was materially lower than HMRC suggested. We succeeded in reducing the total liability due to HMRC to £105,000. We resolved many of the issues identified by HMRC and showed that the errors in the data had arisen due to timing differences and incorrect information being posted into the new system. We reduced the HMRC assessment by just over £1 million.