All businesses trades within and/or with the UK must follow the VAT registration requirements. Value Added Tax (VAT) stands for Value Added Tax. You must register for VAT with HM revenue and Customs if your annual sales exceed the VAT registration thresholds.
VAT registration thresholds in the UK
Below is the VAT registration requirements and threshold with effect from 1 April 2017.
| scenario | Annual sales threshold | |
| 1 | VAT registration | £85,000 and more |
| 2 | Distance selling into the UK registration | £70,000 and more |
| 3 | Bringing goods into the UK from the EU | £85,000 and more |
| 4 | VAT deregistration | £83,000 and less |
| 5 | To complete the simplified EC Sales list | £106,500 or less & supplies to EU countries is less than £11,000 |
Post VAT registration requirements
Once your business – a sole proprietorship or partnership or your company is successfully registered for VAT in the UK, HMRC will issue a VAT certificate to your business. In the VAT certificate, you will see your default VAT return quarter end date. Usually, it is a standard 3 months per quarter period. For example, if HMRC states your VAT return quarter end date is 31 March then you would have one month and 7 days to submit VAT return for 1 Jan to 31 March to HMRC.
You may apply to HMRC to change your VAT return quarter end date. For example, you can apply to join VAT annual accounting scheme if your sales are less than £1.35 million or less per year. Once you joined the VAT annual accounting scheme, you would only require to submit one VAT return per year.
Other compulsory filings
If your business is a limited company or limited liability partnership (LLP) registered with Companies House, you must comply with the UK company law.
You must prepare and submit the the documents to Companies House in addition to your VAT return to HMRC.
- Confirmation statement
- Company accounts
- Events driven filings i.e appoint a new director or change of your registered office address.
- Closing down your company.
You can submit your company documents online. You would require your company’s authentication code to do so. The authentication code is the electronic equivalent of your company’s director(s) signatures. Hence, you must keep it safe.
Companies House has also created an interim paperless filing service to accept documents which would normally require a live signature during COVID-19 pandemic. You can easily upload your documents to the Companies House website.
If you require help with your company’s filings, contact our accountants. They will be more than happy to assist you.
