Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

VAT definition

What does VAT mean? VAT is a consumption tax on most supplies of goods and services made by taxable businesses to businesses or consumers. In practice, it underpins pricing (plus VAT), invoicing, cross‑border trade and many property transactions. The charge and key concepts are set out in the UK Value Added Tax Act 1994 and, in Ireland, the Value‑Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 (implementing the EU VAT Directive). In Northern Ireland, EU VAT rules continue to apply to goods under the Windsor Framework; services follow UK rules. Core features include: output tax charged at standard, reduced or zero rates; exempt supplies (for example, certain...

UK VAT returns, payment timings and accounting schemes: periods, deadlines, Making Tax Digital, payments on account, HMRC variations, COVID-19 deferral, and events terminating VAT periods

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Practice notes

Even though the end consumer ultimately shoulders vat, the duty to pay it to HMRC sits with VAT‑registered suppliers of goods and services. For more detail, see below: How is VAT collected?

How is VAT collected?

This Practice Note sets out the practical steps businesses use when paying VAT to HMRC and also refers to the EU VAT Directive 2006/112/EC. The UK ceased to be an EU Member State on 31 January 2020 and, from that date, entered an implementation period (IP) during which it was largely treated as a Member State and remained bound by EU law. The IP ended at 11 pm on 31 December 2020. At that point, EU‑derived rights and legislation—labelled retained EU law (REUL)—were carried over into domestic UK law. For more on REUL and tax, see Practice Note: Retained EU law and tax. From 1 January 2024, any REUL still in force after the end of 2023 was reclassified as ‘assimilated law’...

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Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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