Flat Rate VAT Spreadsheet help?

[Fred Bloggs]

Presently, I've made a spready that records my quarterly invoices received (cash based VAT), totals them and gives me the correct flat rate VAT to pay to HMRC. I have realised that I am paying £120 per year for someone in the accountants office to fill in the on line VAT return for me four times a year. That must be about 20-30 minutes a year work as we have the data to hand. It seems worthwhile adding a bit more functionality to the spready to give me the amounts to enter into each box the on line VAT form myself. Saving me £120 a year, given the absence of income recently, that would be useful cash to me.

Has anyone else done this? Ten minutes Googling this morning didn't unearth anything. Thanks.

[Louisa@InTouch]

If you are on the flat rate scheme, the VAT return will be very simple.

Box 1 will be the flat rate VAT due on the cash receipts for the quarter.

Box 6 will be the total gross invoices for the quarter, again on a cash receipts basis.

Box 3 and 5 will be completed automatically for you, assuming that you are not reclaiming any VAT on assets costing more than £2,000.

If you are reclaiming VAT, then you will need to complete boxes 4 and 7.

Hope this helps

[kaiser78]

Presently, I've made a spready that records my quarterly invoices received (cash based VAT), totals them and gives me the correct flat rate VAT to pay to HMRC. I have realised that I am paying £120 per year for someone in the accountants office to fill in the on line VAT return for me four times a year. That must be about 20-30 minutes a year work as we have the data to hand. It seems worthwhile adding a bit more functionality to the spready to give me the amounts to enter into each box the on line VAT form myself. Saving me £120 a year, given the absence of income recently, that would be useful cash to me.

Has anyone else done this? Ten minutes Googling this morning didn't unearth anything. Thanks.

I have also been using a spreadsheet to calculate my flat rate VAT and is all formula driven, whereby I just enter the invoice amounts for relevant period and the VAT owed is calculated.

However my accountant does this as part of his annual fee and so I now get him to do this for me. I just make the payment when required.

[kaiser78]

If you are on the flat rate scheme, the VAT return will be very simple.

Box 1 will be the flat rate VAT due on the cash receipts for the quarter.

Box 6 will be the total gross invoices for the quarter, again on a cash receipts basis.

Box 3 and 5 will be completed automatically for you, assuming that you are not reclaiming any VAT on assets costing more than £2,000.

If you are reclaiming VAT, then you will need to complete boxes 4 and 7.

Hope this helps

Filling in is very easy - the time consuming element is navigating through the numerous HMRC screens to submit the returns, especially when the menu options are changed around !

[Fred Bloggs]

If you are on the flat rate scheme, the VAT return will be very simple.

Box 1 will be the flat rate VAT due on the cash receipts for the quarter.

Box 6 will be the total gross invoices for the quarter, again on a cash receipts basis.

Box 3 and 5 will be completed automatically for you, assuming that you are not reclaiming any VAT on assets costing more than £2,000.

If you are reclaiming VAT, then you will need to complete boxes 4 and 7.

Hope this helps

Thanks Louisa, that's really great. I never have claimed any VAT back and I've been operating since 2003.

[ContrataxLtd]

Presently, I've made a spready that records my quarterly invoices received (cash based VAT), totals them and gives me the correct flat rate VAT to pay to HMRC. I have realised that I am paying £120 per year for someone in the accountants office to fill in the on line VAT return for me four times a year. That must be about 20-30 minutes a year work as we have the data to hand. It seems worthwhile adding a bit more functionality to the spready to give me the amounts to enter into each box the on line VAT form myself. Saving me £120 a year, given the absence of income recently, that would be useful cash to me.

Has anyone else done this? Ten minutes Googling this morning didn't unearth anything. Thanks.

Drop me a PM if you want a spreadsheet that will compete the boxes for you automatically.

As Kaiser said the most time consuming part is probably filling in the return online. Just make sure you have your government gateway account setup so you can submit this yourself.

Martin
Contratax Ltd

[Fred Bloggs]

I have also been using a spreadsheet to calculate my flat rate VAT and is all formula driven, whereby I just enter the invoice amounts for relevant period and the VAT owed is calculated.

However my accountant does this as part of his annual fee and so I now get him to do this for me. I just make the payment when required.

I've been doing exactly that since 2003. If I could tweak the spready a bit then even an idiot like me can do the on line return and save the £120 a year (£10 a month) the accountant charges me.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

As others have said, its all pretty straightforward on the FRS.

Box 1: Total flat rate VAT (percentage * gross sales including any zero rated or exempt sales, but not sales outside the scope of UK VAT)

Box 2: will normally be empty unless you've purchased goods from another EC country.

Box 3: 1 + 2

Box 4: will normally be empty unless you're dealing with services under the reverse charge (see below) or reclaiming VAT on large capital purchases of goods. Note that if you've got any acquisitions and have added the VAT to Box 2, you *cannot* reclaim this in VAT Box 4 under the FRS.

Box 5: 3 - 4.

Box 6: Gross flat rate turnover - the HMRC online software tells you to put the net in but this is only correct if you're on the standard scheme - the value should be the amount you applied your FRS percentage. Do not include any sales outside the scope of UK VAT (again this is different from the standard scheme).

Box 7: will normally be empty unless you're applying the reverse charge or have large capital purchases.

If you've bought any capital purchases over £2k, the net amount will go in Box 7 and the VAT reclaimed in Box 4.

If you've subsequently sold any capital purchases that you'd previously reclaimed the VAT on, you treat this sale outside of the FRS, so net sale price gets added to box 6 and the VAT gets added to box 1, on top of your FRS amounts.

One thing to bear in mind is that if you purchase any services from outside the UK (e.g. hosting, software) you'll need to account for it under the reverse charge mechanism, even if you're on the FRS.

1. Add up value of purchases using amount paid in GBP
2. Calculate VAT at 20% and add to Box 1 (as if you'd sold it yourself)
3. Add same value to box 4 (which cancels out the amount added to Box 1), along with any other VAT reclaimed (e.g. on capital purchases over £2k).
4. Add net value of purchases to box 6 and 7.

Easy.

[Fred Bloggs]

Thank you TCP, indeed dead easy. I'll tweak my spready to show this and I can just follow it when I fill in the on line return. Should have done this years ago I think.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Thank you TCP, indeed dead easy. I'll tweak my spready to show this and I can just follow it when I fill in the on line return. Should have done this years ago I think.

I suppose I should follow this up with an obligatory plug for FreeAgent which will not only let you manage your own books easily, but it will both fill out and submit your VAT returns for you with a few clicks.