VAT incorrectly put on an invoice- advice

dlpfan2019

Hi all,
Just been speaking to a friend of mine who has realised that for 6 invoices this year ( first one in April ) he has incorrectly added VAT - I think he did it via one of those online ones and it did it automatically and he forgot to remove it
He has asked what he needs to do but I have no idea at all
Does he contact them and credit it to the companies concerned?

oldbikebloke

since he is not Vat registered he must refund the money charged to the customer. That is a given 

it would be wise for him to check if any of those customers are themselves Vat registered as that would mean they will have claimed the vat back on their own VAT return, They will therefore need to be "reminded" they will now have to reverse that claim on their own vat returns 

whilst the chances of HMRC finding out about invalid vat claims by his customers (because they did a vat inspection of that customer and picked exactly his invoice to inspect) is slim to non existent, it would be very wise to ensure his customers are told exactly why he is refunding the "vat". 
That said, the customer, if themselves vat registered, should have noted he isn't and should have challenged it at the time. That does not give him an excuse for what he did, nor a reason for refusing to refund, because if that customer reports him to HMRC, his life will get very unpleasant as the Vat section of HMRC are the least forgiving part of HMRC. Avoid all that by simply sorting it out now as an "admin error"

if his customers are not themselves vat registered, he has nonetheless acted illegally (yes, it is a criminal, not a civil, offence) and needs to rectify it 

realistically speaking, sort the money and then there is no need to inform HMRC at all as they won't be interested 

Mistral001

It looks like just another example of relying too much on "aps" and downloads from the internet.  Though this one is a more serious case as it has lead to somebody unwittingly committing a criminal offence.  Ignorance is no defence though and the money must be repaid and quickly as oldbikebloke has eluded to.