VAT payment deferrals for business – how does it work and how do I take advantage of it?
April 15th 2020 Article
15 April 2020
TIn response to the Covid-19 crisis, the government has announced that it will allow businesses to defer certain VAT payments with the intention of easing cashflow pressures on businesses over the peak of the pandemic.
The VAT deferral means that all businesses with a UK VAT registration have the option to defer VAT payments due between 20 March and 30 June 2020. Businesses will have until 31 March 2021 and no penalties or interest for late payment will be charged by HRMC. In practice this applies to the following:
- Payments for quarterly returns ending February 29, 2020 (if not already paid by March 20, 2020).
- Payments for quarterly returns ending March 31, 2020.
- Payments for quarterly returns ending April 30, 2020.
- Payments for monthly returns due between March 20, 2020 and June 30, 2020.
- Payments on account due between March 20, 2020 and June 30, 2020.
- Annual accounting advance payments due between March 20, 2020 and June 30, 2020.
Businesses do not need to inform HMRC that they will be deferring their VAT payment, they simply need to cancel the payment. If your business normally pays by direct debit this will mean contacting your bank or cancelling the direct debit through online banking – this should be done as early as possible before the payments are due to be taken so HMRC does not attempt to automatically collect the payment.
Businesses deferring payments will still need to complete their VAT returns as usual by the normal deadline at https://www.gov.uk/send-vat-return.
The deferral scheme does not apply to VAT MOSS (a system of paying for VAT if your business supplies certain digital services to EU countries) or import VAT.
