VAT miscalculations - advice needed please

oompahloompah

Apologies if I've posted on the wrong board but I thought you guys may be the ones to help me.

Anyway, long story short, I have recently done a quick audit of our accounts and have discovered that VAT has been reclaimed on VAT exempt or zero-rated items e.g. postage, insurance etc.

My main question is this: the inaccurately reclaimed VAT for the past 6 years totals around £750 - if we were to add this to the next VAT bill (due in next month) would this help avoid any fines etc from HMRC?

Also, do we have to notify HMRC that there has been an error, or just add the amount on to what we owe them?

Thirdly, related but not exactly the same - we received a VAT refund earlier in this year of just over £100 - this has gone through under the same nominal account code used for paying VAT out, just logged as a receipt rather than a payment - is this correct?

Thanks everyone

Ste_C

Don't worry about it.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/probs-penalties.htm

If you declare it voluntarily then you'll be fine. Especially as it's not a huge amount. Just make sure all your paperwork stacks up.

Someone can confirm, but if the miscalculation is for less than £2000 then you don't need to tell them, you just adjust your next return accordingly and keep a note of it.

Re sage, it is posted in the right place. It is not income, remember the VAT has been reclaimed already when posting on sage. e.g You bought something for £117.50, £100 would go to purchases and £17.50 to the vat code. So if you put this receipt in your P&L codes you'd effectively have it in twice.

oompahloompah

Thanks Ste, you've put my mind at rest.