We specialise in VAT so you don’t have to!

 

VATease has worked alongside accountants and their practices since 1990. Our team has experience of working both in-house in bespoke VAT roles as well as through VATease. As a result, many accountants now see us as their ‘go-to’ support in this area. Essentially, we specialise in VAT, so you don’t have to. After all, how many times have you researched a VAT query only to then question the result, or, worse still, have the client question the outcome? By passing on the query to the knowledgeable team at VATease, your client will have the information that they need, quickly and efficiently, and your precious time can be spent elsewhere.

 

“VATease can be relied on for very practical VAT advice. They are always professional and responsive in their approach and we have total confidence in their ability. The VATease team provides valued support for our clients.”Terry Griffin & Richard Waller – Kenneth Morris Accountants

 

VAT tip.

How to avoid client misunderstandings in respect of VAT (and other stories).

From experience, we know that clients often blame the accountant or bookkeeper when errors have been spotted by a VAT Inspector. It’s a case of simple miscommunication. Clients assume that as you’ve prepared a set of financial accounts that you will have automatically checked everything, including VAT liabilities. From the outset, explain that this is not the case and VAT is an additional ‘add-on’ to their annual review. We recommend that you may like to offer them one of our add-ons accounts preparation VAT review services such as VATaware™.

 

New Clients

Want to win that all-important new client pitch? From as little as £35, we may just be able to give you the hook to catch the new client. VAT is often the last topic to be covered in a pitch so by showing that you’re fully immersed in what that new client needs, it might well be the turning point for you and your business – you’re welcome!

 

Recharging VATease fees and looking at fees from different perspectives

It goes without saying that you should try and recharge VAT advice fees to your clients wherever possible but there will always be occasions when this is not possible. Frustrating, we know. But we also know that spending time researching what that client needs can also be costly in time and effort, and you are not always guaranteed to be offering the right advice.

We can offer you ad hoc advice over the phone or by email when you need it. What’s more, our open and transparent pricing will ensure that if your VAT query is more complex and needs additional time spent on it, then we’ll help you to make the best available decision for your client.

 

Why Work with us

There are free tax and VAT helplines out there including HMRC’s own National Advice Service, but we go that extra mile to ensure we have covered all aspects of the query, whilst considering the practicalities. We have a reputation to uphold for VAT advice is what we do and we do it with a smile and integrity. Additionally, we will speak to a Client on your behalf if you need us to – it’s all part of our professional and personal service.

 

HMRC

A few things to remember if you go directly to the National Helpline Service for a VAT query:

HMRC will request a reference from you and if you are VAT registered, this reference is your VAT Registration number. Your query is then logged against your file. It has been known for a visiting VAT Inspector to look at the queries asked by a business of the HMRC helpline to try and determine whether there is an area that appears to be causing difficulties. At the visit, the Inspector may then focus on that area to see if there is an under declaration of VAT because of misunderstanding the rules. Also, generally, HMRC will only talk to the persons specifically named on their records, so if your name’s not down – you’re not coming in!

HMRC will NOT advise on a hypothetical situation, so you cannot have a general VAT chat about your affairs and what you are planning to do.

If you rely on advice given by HMRC which is later proved wrong, then it is down to you to be able to prove that you gave HMRC the full facts of your query in the first place so that you can rely on the advice they gave you!

HMRC are quick to point out that VAT is a ‘self-assessed tax’ so, unfortunately, it can be difficult to get advice from them.

When it’s OK to go to HMRC…

Of course, there may be some occasions when an approach to HMRC (to the written enquiries) on a VAT issue is the best way forward and we will advise you of these times and guide you accordingly.

However, we do not recommend blindly sending in a written VAT query for a couple of reasons.

We were once asked to act for a charity who wanted to maximise their grant income after they had sent a perfectly innocent letter to HMRC VAT Enquiry centre asking for guidance as to how they should structure their affairs to achieve the best VAT saving. Next thing, the local Tax Avoidance Officer became involved accusing the charity of illegally trying to avoid paying the VAT due when all the charity wanted was some advice to plan things in the most VAT efficient way. No law against that!

HMRC tend to reject a lot of VAT queries because VAT is a self-assessed tax and they state it is up to you as the taxpayer to make the decision about your VAT liabilities. Additionally, they will often simply state that they will not answer your VAT query because your question is covered in their public guidance. They then refer you to the relevant Public Notice. Therefore, in order to get any VAT advice in writing, you must word your enquiry letter carefully so as to pre-empt HMRC’s stock responses. If you receive some written VAT advice from HMRC, remember you still need to be able to prove you gave full (and correct) facts in order to rely on this VAT advice.

 

More information

Simply send us a one-off query for as little as £35 or, if you would like us to assist you more extensively – we’re here to help. What’s more, we pride ourselves on being jargon-free and also offer transparent pricing.

Contact us today for a friendly chat.

 

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