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Claiming VAT on purchases made before your first VAT Return

HMRC allow you claim VAT on some purchases made before registration. The HMRC website has some information on what can be claimed.

Normally a VAT Return only includes transactions from within the date range of the VAT Return, but Bookkeeping Today allows you to include other transactions when needed.

To claim the VAT on a purchase made before your VAT Return, follow this procedure:

  1. Enter the purchase as normal.
  2. Click on 'Advanced' to open the advanced section of the page.
  3. Change the VAT Date to be within the date range of your VAT Return.
  4. Click the Save button to save the purchase/
  5. If your company is on the Flat Rate VAT Scheme, tick the Standard VAT box.

Changing the VAT Date changes the vatable date of the purchase. By changing the VAT Date of your purchase to be within your VAT Return dates, you have added your purchase to that VAT Return, so the VAT will be reclaimed.

For companies on the Flat Rate VAT Scheme

As mentioned above, if your company uses the Flat Rate Scheme for VAT, you will need to tick the Standard VAT box when entering your purchase. This is because the VAT on purchases is not normally reclaimed when using the Flat Rate VAT Scheme.

When you tick the Standard VAT box, the purchase will be added to your VAT Return using the Standard VAT rules instead of the Flat Rate rules, so the VAT on the purchase will be reclaimed.