Maintain complete vat books for hassle free accounting

Once you have turned into a vat registered trader in the United Kingdom or perhaps some other country that follows vat you then 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 subjected to a vat audit.

In the United Kingdom you will have to opt for vat registration upon completing 70,000 sterling pounds of taxable sales in the last one year of your business, even though you can still do so before reaching that vat threshold limit. Once you have become a vat registered trader in the UK then you will need to obey all applicable vat rules framed by HM Revenue and Customs department or hmrc vat department. Although there is no set means of maintaining books of accounts especially for vat, you still need to ensure you store all details of vat paid and collected including invoice numbers, dates, vat rates, vat amounts, names and addresses of your dealings with various parties even if they were conducted in other countries, etc.

These details will also need to be summarized when 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 total vat amount collected against that sales invoice vatnumbers. All of this data will also need to be mentioned in your sales books even as all purchase invoices will need to be summarized in your purchase books. In addition, 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 call at your business premises and may want to go over all your books of accounts to confirm certain doubts lingering in their minds. They might cross check vat invoices with your sales books or request certain confirmations on specific vat transactions simply to confirm if they were indeed genuine ones. If all your books of accounts pertaining to vat are in order then that would make a favourable impression with those vat officers as well as prevent any penalties from striking down your business plus your reputation.

In case you have any problems in understanding what is vat then you definitely should go looking for the expertise of a good vat agent that can help you to create and maintain all books of accounts associated with vat in a clear and methodical manner important link. You need to maintain books of accounts connected with vat for a period of 6 years. Various vat schemes require different kinds of books and your vat agent would be able to assist you about the right format for your business depending on your scheme and vat classifications of the goods and services.

Maintaining proper books of accounts can help you to conduct your business in a clear and seamless manner. In case you too have adopted vat in the UK then you’ll definitely have to maintain complete vat books for hassle free accounting and auditing.