Vatnix answers

Every answer below is aimed at a question people measurably search for, is written from named sources, and links to the page that handles the job itself. None of them is a landing page in disguise.

These are the questions a VAT-registered small business actually types, answered one at a time: what the registration threshold is and how a rolling twelve months is tested, which figure goes in which box of the return, when the return and the money are due and what happens when they are late, how to check a supplier's VAT number, what the domestic reverse charge does to a construction invoice, and which of the free Making Tax Digital tools will actually submit for a sole trader. Each page cites the GOV.UK guidance it works from and links to the free calculator that does the arithmetic. We work out the figures and keep the records; we never submit a return to HMRC.

• Check a UK VAT number: what HMRC's checker confirms and what it cannot

  How to check a UK VAT number against HMRC's own service, what the result proves, and what to do when a supplier's number does not check out.

• VAT search: a lookup by number, not a directory by name

  What a VAT search can and cannot find in the UK, why there is no search by company name, and the one official lookup that works.

• Company VAT number: where it appears and why a search by name comes up empty

  Where a company's VAT number is published, why no official search by name exists, and how to confirm the number once you have it.

• How to find VAT number details for a supplier, in the order that works

  A working order for finding a supplier's VAT number: the paperwork, the website, the ask, and the verification that follows.

• What is my VAT number, and the four places it appears

  Where your own VAT registration number is recorded, what to do when the certificate is lost, and how the number is issued.

• MTD meaning: what Making Tax Digital actually requires of a VAT-registered business

  MTD stands for Making Tax Digital. What it requires for VAT: digital records, digital links, and submission through compatible software.

• Best MTD software, judged on the four things that actually differ

  The four things that separate MTD software for VAT, why price is the last of them, and where a sole trader's answer differs.

• Best free MTD software for VAT: what free actually covers

  What the free MTD tiers include and exclude, the caps that end them, and when free is genuinely the right answer.

• What is a VAT return: the form, the nine figures and a worked quarter

  What a VAT return is, what the figures on it represent, and a worked example of a quarter built from ordinary sales and purchases.

• VAT boxes, one at a time: what goes in each of the nine

  The nine boxes of the UK VAT return, what each contains, and how the totals are built from ordinary sales and purchases.

• Register my company for VAT: what you need and what arrives afterwards

  What VAT registration in the UK actually asks for, how the online route works, and what arrives at the end of it.

• Register a limited company for VAT: when turnover makes it compulsory, and how

  Whether a limited company has to register for VAT, what the test is, and what company VAT registration involves once it does.

• Register for VAT as a sole trader: what the form asks and what changes

  How a sole trader registers for VAT, what the form asks for, and what changes about pricing and paperwork afterwards.

• Voluntary registration for VAT: when it pays for itself, and when it is a price rise

  When registering for VAT below the threshold is worth it, what it costs, and how group registration differs.

• VAT threshold 2026: the £90,000 figure and the rolling test behind it

  The UK VAT registration threshold, the rolling twelve-month test behind it, and the forward-looking test most people miss.

• Sole trader VAT threshold: the same £90,000 as everyone, and what counts towards it

  Why the VAT threshold is the same for a sole trader, a self-employed person and a limited company, and what counts towards it.

• Being VAT registered is killing my business: why it happens and what can be done

  Why VAT registration hurts a consumer-facing business, what can be done about it, and when deregistration is the answer.

• VAT return deadline: one month and seven days, and what that means in practice

  When a VAT return is due, why the deadline is also the payment deadline, and how your own quarter dates are decided.

• VAT payment dates: when each quarter's money is due, and when paying starts

  When VAT is due, why the payment deadline is the same as the return deadline, and when the obligation starts.

• VAT penalties in the points regime: late returns and late payment, kept apart

  How the VAT penalty points system works, what a late return costs, and how late payment penalties and interest are charged.

• Late VAT registration: the VAT you owe first, and the penalty after

  What happens when you register for VAT late: the VAT you owe from the date you should have registered, and the penalty on top.

• VAT accounting in practice: splitting every transaction and proving the return

  How to keep VAT records so the quarter totals rather than reconstructs, and the reconciliation that proves the return.

• Reverse charge VAT: who accounts for it, and what the invoice shows

  What the reverse charge does to an invoice, which boxes it moves the figures into, and a worked example on both sides.

• CIS reverse charge: two construction schemes on one invoice

  How the domestic reverse charge works in construction, how it relates to CIS, and what changes on a subcontractor's invoice.

• VAT invoice template: the fields a full invoice needs, and when a shorter one will do

  What a valid VAT invoice must show, when the simplified version is allowed, and when to issue a VAT-only invoice.

• How to claim VAT back on business purchases through the return

  How input tax is reclaimed through the VAT return, what you need to hold, and the common purchases that cannot be reclaimed.

• Pre registration VAT: reclaiming what you bought before the effective date

  How far back you can reclaim VAT on purchases made before registering, what qualifies, and how to claim it.

• VAT schemes worth knowing: the VAT accounting schemes that change what you pay, when you pay it, or how often you file

  The main UK VAT accounting schemes, what each one actually changes, and which kind of business each suits.

• VAT codes in accounting software: what each posting code means and where it lands

  What VAT posting codes represent, the difference between zero-rated, exempt and out of scope, and where each lands on the return.

• How much VAT is on a price, and how much VAT do you pay once the rate and the direction of the calculation are settled

  The UK VAT rates, how to work the VAT out of a gross figure or on to a net one, and why the two are different sums.

• VAT on imported goods: how import VAT is charged, and how postponed VAT accounting puts it on the return instead of the doorstep

  How import VAT works for a UK business, what postponed VAT accounting changes, and where the figures land on the return.

• VAT on electric cars for a business, and VAT on used cars UK under the second-hand margin scheme

  Why VAT on a business car is usually blocked, how electric cars are treated, and how the margin scheme works on used cars.

• VAT on commercial property: why most transactions are exempt, and what an option to tax changes for buyer, seller and tenant

  Why commercial property is normally exempt from VAT, what opting to tax does, and what it means for a buyer or tenant.