Maintain complete vat books for hassle free accounting
After you have turned into a vat registered trader in the United Kingdom or perhaps any other country that follows vat then you should maintain complete vat books for hassle free accounting. These books of accounts need to record and display each vat transaction in detail, and may be of great help if you are put through a vat audit.
In the UK you will have to opt for vat registration upon completing 70,000 sterling pounds of taxable sales in the previous twelve months of your business, although you can still do so before reaching that vat threshold limit. After you have become a vat registered trader in the UK then you’ll have to obey all applicable vat rules framed by HM Revenue and Customs department or hmrc vat department. While there is no set way of maintaining books of accounts especially for vat, you will still have to be sure you store all details of vat paid and collected including invoice numbers, dates, vat rates, vat amounts, names and addresses of your respective dealings with various parties even though these were conducted in other countries, etc.
These details will also need to be summarized whenever you file regular vat returns on a yearly, quarterly or monthly basis, as decided by hmrc vat department. Your vat invoice too will specifically have to display your vat number, vat rate for each product or service, and the https://vatcheck.com total vat amount collected against that sales invoice. All this data will also need to be mentioned in the sales books even as all purchase invoices will need to be summarized in your purchase books. Moreover, maintaining bank and cash books is required for vat registered traders.
Maintaining such vat books on an up-to-date basis is extremely important since vat officers at hmrc might compare your vat returns or even your vat refunds and may decide to conduct a vat audit of your business. In such a case, vat officers might visit your business premises and would want to go over all of your books of accounts to confirm certain doubts lingering in their minds. They may cross check vat invoices with all your sales books or ask for certain confirmations on specific vat transactions only to confirm if they were indeed genuine ones. If all your books of accounts pertaining to vat are typically in order then that would create a favourable impression with those vat officers as well as prevent any penalties from striking down your organization plus your reputation.
If you have any problems to understand what exactly is vat then you certainly go looking for the expertise of a good vat agent that can help you to create and keep all books of accounts associated with vat in a clear and methodical manner. You will need to maintain books of accounts related to vat for a period of 6 years. Various vat schemes require different kinds of books and your vat agent could assist you on the right format for your business depending on your scheme and vat classifications of your services and goods.
Maintaining proper books of accounts will help you to conduct your small business in a clear and seamless manner. If you too now utilize vat in the UK then you will definitely need to maintain complete vat books for hassle free accounting and auditing.