24 May 2023| CATEGORIES: e-Commerce, VAT, VAT registration| TAGS: digital services, e-commerce, ESS, GST, VAT
The trend for businesses to provide services digitally or online has accelerated significantly in recent years, particularly following the COVID pandemic. The Value Added Tax (VAT) and Goods and Sales Tax (GST) compliance obligations of businesses providing digital or electronically supplied services (ESS) are increasing. Tax authorities increasingly require overseas businesses to register for and charge local VAT/GST on their B2C supplies of ESS.
28 April 2023| CATEGORIES: Exports, Uncategorised, VAT, zero rate| TAGS: Exports, HMRC, New guidance, zero rate
HMRC have recently updated guidance in Notice 703 to clarify what is considered to be satisfactory evidence to zero rate exports. Businesses that export goods should review the guidance to ensure their record keeping meets these standards.
20 April 2023| CATEGORIES: Customs, Spring Budget 2023, VAT| TAGS: Customs, HMRC, Spring Budget 2023, VAT
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, presented the Spring Budget to the House of Commons on 15 March 2023. This article looks at the main points of interest from a VAT and Customs perspective. The full set of Spring Budget 2023 documents are available here.
9 February 2023| CATEGORIES: Brexit, second-hand vehicles, VAT| TAGS: new VAT rules, Northern Ireland, second-hand vehicles
A new VAT-related payment scheme for businesses that buy second-hand cars in GB and move them to Northern Ireland or the European Union for resale is to be introduced. This puts Northern Ireland dealers in a comparable financial position to their counterparts in the rest of the UK. Under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol the VAT second-hand car margin scheme could no longer be used by dealers for these sales.
New UK VAT penalty regime
HMRC is introducing a new VAT penalty regime for VAT return periods starting on or after 1 January 2023. All businesses should familiarise themselves with the changes, particularly as certain businesses could be subject to penalties for the first time.
1 February 2023| CATEGORIES: New penalty regime, VAT
1 December 2022| CATEGORIES: Autumn Statement, VAT, VAT registration| TAGS: VAT registration threshold
In the Autumn Statement Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that the VAT registration and deregistration thresholds would be frozen for a further 2 years from April 2024. The current thesholds of £85,000 (VAT registration) and £83,000 (VAT deregistration) have now been in place since April 2017.
11 November 2022| CATEGORIES: VAT, VAT reduction| TAGS: tampon tax, VAT rate cut
A report by the Tax Policy Associates think-tank has found that following the abolition of 5% VAT on women’s sanitary products only a 1% price reduction was passed on to consumers.
12 October 2022| CATEGORIES: New tax rules, VAT, VAT penalty regime| TAGS: New HMRC rules, VAT penalty changes
A new penalty regime for VAT comes into effect for VAT return periods starting on or after 1 January 2023. Businesses should familiarise themselves with the changes to avoid getting caught out by some of the finer detail.
5 October 2022| CATEGORIES: hospitality and tourism, VAT, VAT refund, VAT-free shopping| TAGS: Growth Plan 2022, shopping, tax-free, UK, VAT-free
UPDATE: The new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has reversed this tax measure announced by his predecessor.
7 October 2021| CATEGORIES: HMRC, Tax, Tax gap, VAT| TAGS: HMRC, Tax gap, VAT
The tax gap for the 2019/20 tax year is 5.3%, which represents £35 billion, according to statistics recently published by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The total tax gap for Value Added Tax (VAT) is £12.3 billion.
