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ICAEW Registered Auditors  ·  90+ UK-Based Experts

VAT Compliance

Complete VAT compliance for UK businesses — registrations, Making Tax Digital returns, error corrections and HMRC correspondence — run by VAT specialists, many of whom used to work for HMRC.

Speak to a Specialist Call 020 8567 3451

VAT is the tax businesses touch most often and understand least well. Returns fall due every quarter under Making Tax Digital rules, the penalty regime now works on points that accumulate with every late submission, and the treatment questions — what rate, what evidence, what falls in which box — never stop arriving. Compliance is not one task but a standing discipline.

Our VAT compliance service takes that discipline off your desk: we prepare and file your returns through MTD-compatible software, keep your registration details current, review the treatments behind the numbers, and answer HMRC's letters before they become HMRC's visits.

VAT Returns Under Making Tax Digital

Every VAT-registered business must keep digital records and file through MTD-compatible software, with digital links from source records to the return. We prepare returns from your records — whether you run Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or spreadsheets that need bridging — review the figures for the errors that recur in practice, and file on time, every period. You approve; we submit.

Registrations, Deregistrations and Changes

Compliance starts with being registered correctly. We monitor turnover against the registration threshold so the obligation is never missed, handle registrations and deregistrations at the right time, and keep scheme choices under review — flat rate, cash accounting and annual accounting each suit some businesses and quietly cost others. When circumstances change, the VAT position should change with them.

Getting the Treatment Right

Most VAT errors are treatment errors: a supply zero-rated that should be standard-rated, input tax claimed without the evidence to support it, or a partial exemption calculation that has drifted from reality. Our specialists review the treatments behind your returns, not just the arithmetic, and give clear answers to the this-specific-invoice questions that arise between filings. Complex areas — property, international supplies, partial exemption — connect directly to our specialist VAT advisory services.

The Penalty Regime and Error Corrections

Late submissions now earn penalty points, and enough points convert into fixed penalties — with separate, escalating charges for late payment and interest on top. Errors discovered in past returns can often be corrected on the next return within limits, but larger ones need a formal disclosure, and how a disclosure is framed affects the penalty position significantly. Having ex-HMRC specialists make that judgement is precisely the point of this service.

When HMRC Gets in Touch

VAT generates more routine HMRC contact than any other tax: repayment credibility checks, pre-registration questions, compliance visits. We handle the correspondence as your agent, prepare what HMRC asks for, and attend visits where needed. If contact escalates into a formal enquiry, our VAT investigation specialists take over — with the file already in order, because we built it.

What You Get With Acumon

  • VAT returns prepared, reviewed and filed under Making Tax Digital, every period
  • Digital record-keeping and bridging solutions for spreadsheet-based businesses
  • Registration threshold monitoring, registrations and deregistrations
  • Scheme reviews: flat rate, cash accounting and annual accounting
  • Treatment reviews behind the numbers, not just arithmetic checks
  • Error corrections and voluntary disclosures framed to minimise penalties
  • All routine HMRC correspondence and repayment checks handled as your agent
  • Direct access to specialists for partial exemption, property and international VAT

Why Acumon for VAT Compliance?

  • Many of Acumon's VAT specialists previously worked for HMRC
  • All 90 professionals are based in the UK
  • Returns filed through MTD-compatible software, with bridging solutions for spreadsheet records
  • Compliance connects directly to specialist support: partial exemption, property, international VAT and investigations

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Making Tax Digital for VAT actually require?
Three things: digital records of your sales and purchases, digital links between those records and the return (no retyping figures), and filing through MTD-compatible software rather than the old HMRC portal. It applies to all VAT-registered businesses regardless of turnover. Standard packages like Xero, QuickBooks and Sage satisfy the requirements when set up properly; spreadsheet-based businesses need bridging software, which we provide as part of the service.
How do the VAT penalty points work?
Each late return earns one point, and when you hit the threshold — four points for quarterly filers — every subsequent late return triggers a £200 penalty until a period of sustained compliance resets the record. Late payment is penalised separately and escalates with time, plus interest. The regime punishes patterns rather than one-off slips, which cuts both ways: a single miss is survivable, but chronic lateness becomes expensive fast. Our job is to make sure the pattern never starts.
We've found an error in a past VAT return — what should we do?
It depends on size. Errors below a threshold based on your turnover can usually be corrected on your next return; larger errors, or deliberate ones, need a formal disclosure to HMRC on a separate form. Either way, an unprompted disclosure attracts significantly lower penalties than waiting for HMRC to find it — and repeated small corrections can themselves attract attention. Tell us what you have found and we will handle the correction in the way that minimises both penalty and profile.
Do you just file the numbers we give you?
No — that is the difference between VAT compliance and VAT data entry. We review the treatments behind the figures: whether supplies are rated correctly, whether input tax claims are supportable, whether partial exemption or the capital goods scheme applies. Most VAT costs we recover for new clients come from errors a filing-only service had been faithfully submitting for years.
HMRC has asked questions about our VAT repayment — is that serious?
Usually not: repayment returns are routinely checked before HMRC pays out, especially for newly registered businesses or unusually large claims. It becomes serious only if the responses are wrong, slow or inconsistent. We respond as your agent with the documentation HMRC expects, which typically closes checks quickly. If a check deepens into an enquiry, our VAT investigation team — several formerly of HMRC — takes over.
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