From 1 April 2010, all VAT registered businesses with a turnover of £100,000 or more and all businesses that are newly registered for VAT, whatever their turnover, will have to file their VAT returns online. These affected businesses will also have to pay any VAT due electronically. These changes apply to quarters commencing on or after 1 April 2010.

If you do not have a HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online account already for VAT or any other service, you can register on the HMRC website. Please note that you can have one HMRC account to deal with all matters of your business relating to HMRC.

You will be able to file your VAT returns using your HMRC online account or by using your accounting software. A list of the accounting software available for online VAT filing can be found here and select 'XML VAT Return'. Alternatively, we can file your VAT returns on your behalf and inform you of any VAT due. Please contact us if this is would be helpful.

HMRC have confirmed that paper VAT returns will not be sent for those businesses that fall into the above categories. Instead, an email reminder will be sent to you providing that you have registered and confirmed your email address on your HMRC online account for VAT purposes.

The benefit of filing VAT online and paying electronically is that you get additional time to submit your VAT return and pay any VAT due. Please click here to find out more about the additional time to file VAT returns and pay VAT electronically. It is worth noting however, that you will not get any additional time to submit your VAT return if a repayment of VAT is due.

Please contact us if you would like to discuss these changes or if you would like any advice.