Jay Cooke

Place of supply of services is where the customer is, customer is not in the UK, therefore outside the scope of VAT, so treat the invoice as reverse charge.

Clearly the name of the VAT registered business is not the same as the bank details you gave (missed off the "Wiltshire"). The bank account name must match the name of the VAT registered business (excluding special characters of course). You should be able to go back into your government gateway and add correct bank details - exclude the brackets but leave in Wiltshire - in terms of the cancelled cheque, once the bank details have been updated via your gateway (give it a day or two), you can then contact HMRC general VAT helpline and ask them to reissue the refund to the bank details showing on your government gateway. Monzo are able to receive refunds from HMRC, so not sure why you would want HMRC to reissue you with another cheque, but if you still prefer a cheque, then you call the general VAT helpline and request the cheque be re-issued.

You have to submit VAT returns every quarter (every 3 months), your quarters will have been explained to you on your VAT certificate/correspondance from HMRC when you were issued with your VAT number. Even if you have not made any sales, then you should still submit a VAT return, albeit a Nil return (or more likely a VAT return showing Nil sales but £x of purchases of which you want to reclaim input tax on). If you are using Xero then you should ensure your Xero software has your VAT registration number, registration date and connected up to HMRC gateway for MTD purposes, that way, Xero will then remind you when the returns are due. Once you file your VAT return, any estimated assessment/VAT bill that HMRC has issued will be cancelled, but you will have incurred 1 penalty point for not filing your VAT return on time, once you reach 4 penalty points there is a £200 fixed penalty, so please ensure you are filing VAT returns in future to avoid this penalty.

Short answer, company Y cannot reclaim the VAT unless i) company Y registers for VAT and ii) company Y "opts to tax" the property and iii) rents the property to company X at commercial/market value rents. Opting to tax is irrevocable for 20 years and will mean any future rents or sale will be subject to VAT. Opting to tax requires a specific formal process of notification to HMRC, which can be done at same time as when registering company Y for VAT. In addition, because company X and Y are connected persons (same ownership) and because the value of the purchase is over £250k, then there are anti-avoidance rules that apply where the tenant occupying the property is an exempt or partially exempt business. You don't state what company X does/sells but a business if company X is not registered for VAT but able to lend £500k to company Y, then it suggests company X is an exempt or partially exempt business (but there could be other reasons why company X is not registered for VAT). Opting to tax land and buildings (VAT Notice 742A) explains the option to tax rules and section 13 deals with the anti-avoidance rules. VATVAL07300 explains the rules where a VAT registered seller (company y) makes sales to a connected person (company x) who is not VAT registered and where market value rules apply.

VAT returns are not the same as self-assessment/self employment returns. Sounds like you filed your personal/self assessment tax return for the period you were self-employed, but didn't file a VAT return for that same period. If you tell HMRC you are no longer self-employed, that only deals with the self-employment part, you would still be VAT registered until you formally deregister for VAT. On your government gateway, you should go to "Add services" and then "add" the VAT service to your gateway and then the VAT returns that is outstanding should reveal itself, you can then file a Nil VAT return, but you may need to use MTD software in order to do so (ie, you can't file the VAT return via the government gateway), you can also deregister for VAT from the gateway but only once there are no outstanding VAT returns. The £18 owed for VAT is an estimate, HMRC will guess how much you owe them, if you owe nothing because you've ceased to trade, then once a Nil VAT return is filed then the £18 will disappear and be replaced with nothing due/nothing owed. Maybe call/contact the General VAT helpline for more assistance VAT: general enquiries

Care to explain what a SAT is? Presumably you are a state funded school (Academy or Multi Academy) and reclaiming input tax via VAT126 form (section 33 rules)? If so, there is no direct dial for that (VAT126) team, so you just call the general Helpline on 03002003700 and then ask to be transferred to the VAT126 team.

You could just put an expense claim form to your employer, employer will the reimburse you the full cost of the purchases made and the employer has effectively bought the goods from you and the employer can then reclaim the VAT....but the employee/you must be reimbursed. You can't change the details on the invoice because you legally bought the goods from Amazon, you are asking Amazon to put someone elses name on that invoice, why would they do that? You do not want to get into the habit of editing legal documents, because that would be dishonest wouldn't it?

It is possible that the Academy has chosen to "opt to tax" their sports fields and sports hall and that then removes any sporting exemption that may have existed previously. Opting to tax means the rent of any property (building, field, pitch) is subject to VAT and any exemption is lost. Opting to tax is often seen where the business is about to undergo significant capital expenditure (such as a new pitch or flood lighting). I'm not aware of any specific rule changes relating to Academies from 01st December 2024 (or 2025), Academies are usually state funded organisations and fall outside of the private school VAT rules that are coming in from January 2025. If you think the Academy is wrong then not much HMRC can do, as this seems like a contractual dispute between customer and supplier. Until you get to the bottom of the reason for this change. I would suggest going back to the Academy and asking them to point you in the direction of this legislative change or at the very least ask them to explain in more detail as to what the changes are.

It is not clear from your post, have you got your VAT number but you are wanting a hardcopy of the VAT certificate or do you not know your VAT number and do not have a hardcopy VAT certificate either? The issue seems to be with the postal address in Dubai. Are you sure it is capable of receiving post and if it is, are there are any reasons why post is not being passed onto you? HMRC do not give VAT numbers over the telephone, HMRC will always send the VAT certificate in the post as this "confirms" the address is genuine, these methods are part of HMRC's security tests. so HMRC are unlikely to bypass these security tests by sending you an email with your VAT number on. If you do know your VAT number (but not got a VAT certificate), you can access the VAT certificate via your government gateway/portal, you will have set this gateway up when registering for VAT and you need the gateway in order to file VAT returns, but if you don't have your VAT number at all, then you can't use the gateway to access your VAT certificate. Not sure what else HMRC can do here, for one letter to be lost in the post in unfortunate, to lose two letters indicates either bad luck or something wrong with the postal address.