The UK VAT registration threshold is £90,000, and the figure matters less than the test attached to it. It is not a tax year and it is not your accounts: you must register if total taxable turnover for the last twelve months goes over £90,000, on a rolling basis, or if you expect it to go over £90,000 in the next thirty days. Two tests, either of which can catch you on its own.
The rolling twelve months, not the tax year
The backward test is checked at the end of every month against the previous twelve, so a business whose turnover is uneven can cross it in a month that felt quiet because of what happened eleven months earlier. That is why the threshold is a monthly calculation rather than a year-end one. HMRC's own example is exact: if on 15 July your total taxable turnover for the last twelve months reaches £100,000 for the first time, you must register by 30 August and your effective date of registration is 1 September.
The forward test catches people the backward one misses
You must also register if you realise your taxable turnover is going to go over £90,000 in the next thirty days on its own, and here the timing is much tighter: you have to register by the end of that thirty-day period and your effective date is the date you realised, not the date the money arrives. HMRC's example is a £100,000 contract arranged on 1 May and paid at the end of it: register by 30 May, effective 1 May, which means VAT is due on everything invoiced from that date.
What counts, and what the figure has been
Taxable turnover is the total value of everything you sell that is not exempt or out of scope, and it includes zero-rated and reduced-rated goods, goods hired or loaned to customers, business goods used personally, goods bartered or given as gifts, services you had to reverse charge, and supplies under the domestic reverse charge. Nothing about profit enters into it. The threshold has been £90,000 since April 2024, and the figure searched for as the 2025 or 2026 threshold is the same one: always check the current GOV.UK page rather than a remembered number.
Questions people ask about vat threshold 2026
What is the VAT threshold in the UK?
£90,000 of taxable turnover in the last twelve months, tested on a rolling basis, or turnover expected to go over £90,000 in the next thirty days.
Is the VAT threshold based on the tax year?
No. It is a rolling twelve months, checked at the end of each month, which is why a business can cross it in a month that felt quiet.
Has the VAT threshold changed for 2025 or 2026?
The registration threshold has been £90,000 since April 2024. Check the current GOV.UK register for VAT page before relying on any figure, including this one.