Rolling 12 months VAT

kirean1124

Hello

Can anyone clarify when I would start calculating my turnover with regards to vat, for todays date (7th jan), would I be including Jan 1st 19 to Dec 31 19 turnover?

Pennywise

You do it at every month end for the preceeding 12 months, so yes, as at end of December you do 1.1.19 to 31.12.19, and the next time you do it is end of January, i.e. 1.2.19 to 31.1.20 and so on. You don't do it for part months or mid month, it's always to the month end.

kirean1124

Thank you for taking the time to reply and for your clarification.

martindow

I went through this nearly 20 years ago and my memory is different to Pennywise's explanation. I thought that you were required to inform HMRC if you were likely to pass the threshold in the following month. Once you applied to register there was a period where you are liable for VAT but do not yet have a number so cannot issue VAT invoices. One approach is to inform VAT registered customers of the situation then issue temporary invoices with total price increased by 20% but no VAT element and then send replacements with VAT once the number arrives.


Has the system changed or is it my memory?! Pennywise, could you comment please as you are much more familiar with this than me?

Pennywise

The "looking forward" test is for where your turnover is going to be more than the VAT threshold in the following 30 days only, i.e. if your sales in the next 30 days ONLY are over £85,000 - it ignores historical sales. So if the OP was taking on a new contract which would generate £90k of sales in the next 30 days, they'd need to register in advance.

You don't look forward and look back in the same test - it's one or the other.