01-May-09 to  31-Dec-09	01-Jan-10 Onwards
Standard rate	15.0%	17.50%
Standard rate VAT fraction	3/23	7/47
Reduced rate	5%	5%
Reduced rate VAT fraction	1/21	1/21
Taxable Turnover Limits
Registration - last 12 months or next 30 days over	£68,000	£68,000
Deregistration - next 12 months under	£66,000	£66,000
Cash accounting scheme - up to	£1,350,000	£1,350,000
Optional flat rate scheme - up to	£150,000	£150,000
Annual accounting scheme - up to	£1,350,000	£1,350,000

 

Please note that the VAT rates for the period 1st December 2008 to 30th April 2009 are the same as for the period 1st May 2009 to 31st Decemebr 2009 with two exceptions:

• The VAT registration limit was £67,000
• The VAT deregistration limit was £65,000

 

VAT Fuel Scale Charges

VAT fuel scale figures for private use are now based on carbon emissions. There is no distinction between petrol and diesel vehicles. See our VAT fuel scale charges tables.

VAT Schemes

Businesses normally account for VAT when they invoice their customers and when they are invoiced by their suppliers.

HM Revenue & Customs operates a number of VAT accounting schemes that allow businesses to either:

1. dramatically reduce the amount of time and effort they spend administering VAT
2. only account for VAT when they are actually paid by their customers

There are several alternative ways you can account for VAT that could save you time and money.

Other VAT schemes include:

VAT margin schemes for second-hand goods, art, antiques

Normally you charge VAT on your sales, and reclaim VAT on your purchases. However, if you buy or sell second-hand goods, works of art, antiques or collectibles you may be able to use a VAT margin scheme.

This enables you to account for VAT only on the difference between the price you paid for an item and the price at which you sell it - your margin. There is no VAT to reclaim on the item you buy, and you won’t pay any VAT if you don’t make a profit on a deal. You can still use normal VAT accounting for other sales and purchases such as overheads.

VAT retail schemes

If you sell to the general public, especially high quantities of relatively inexpensive items, it can be difficult, time consuming and costly to issue a VAT invoice each time you make a sale, and account for VAT. There are several VAT accounting schemes that retailers can use instead of accounting for VAT in the standard way. These can help simplify your retail VAT accounting.

There are a number of different standard retail schemes, or depending on your business, you may be able to agree a bespoke VAT retail scheme with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). If your turnover is over certain limits, you can only use a bespoke scheme.