Course description

VAT can feel like a maze when your business gets close to the threshold or has just registered. This course explains the UK VAT rules in plain English, one step at a time, from deciding when you must register to sending your VAT return on time and correcting a mistake. Every rule is shown working in a real small business, with the figures worked through line by line.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and each one ends with a short exercise. You follow Mahnoor, who runs a deli and café in Saltaire, through her first year of VAT, with her bookkeeper Sylwia and her accountant Tanveer: the rolling turnover check that tells her she must register, her prices and till categories, her first invoices and her first return, and a hot soup mistake that needs correcting. In the final project you prepare a full quarter's return for a furniture maker in Keighley. Every section has a practice pack with a workbook, model answers and a one-page cheat sheet.

What you'll learn

• How VAT works: output tax and input tax, how VAT flows along a supply chain, the words you need, how VAT affects prices, and where the rules come from.
• Registering for VAT: VAT taxable turnover, the £90,000 threshold, the rolling 12-month check and the forward look, voluntary registration, pre-registration claims and what happens while you wait for your number.
• VAT rates and liability: the standard, reduced and zero rates, exempt and outside the scope, and a worked case of the food and catering rules.
• VAT invoices and tax points: full, simplified and modified invoices, discounts and deposits, credit notes, and the tax point rules that decide which return a sale goes in.
• Reclaiming input VAT: the conditions and evidence, business entertainment, cars, vans and fuel, costs with private use, and other limits.
• VAT accounting schemes: standard and cash accounting, bad debt relief, the Annual Accounting Scheme, the Flat Rate Scheme and the limited cost business rule.
• Making Tax Digital and the VAT return: digital records and links, compatible software, all nine boxes of the return, and preparing a return from start to finish.
• Deadlines, penalties and corrections: deadlines and paying, penalty points, late payment penalties and interest, correcting errors, reasonable excuses and appeals.
• International, construction and changes to your business: goods and services abroad in outline, the construction reverse charge, cancelling your registration and keeping records.
• Working with an accountant and final project: working with a bookkeeper or accountant, a full quarter's VAT return for a furniture maker, and planning your VAT year.

Who it's for

Owners of small UK businesses who are close to the VAT threshold or newly registered, and bookkeepers who look after their clients' VAT. You don't need any accounting qualification, just everyday arithmetic; the course explains every term and calculation as you meet it.

What this course is, and isn't

This course explains the UK VAT rules as general information, based on HMRC guidance on GOV.UK and HMRC's VAT Notices as at October 2026. It isn't tax advice for your business, and it doesn't recommend whether to register, which scheme to use or any software. The rules and figures change, so check the current guidance on GOV.UK and talk to an accountant or tax adviser before you act on anything.

What will I learn?

• Explain how VAT works, from output tax and input tax to how it flows along a supply chain
• Work out VAT taxable turnover, run the rolling 12-month check and the forward look, and find the registration deadline and effective date
• Decide whether a sale is standard rated, reduced rated, zero rated, exempt or outside the scope, including the food and catering rules
• Check that a VAT invoice has everything it needs and work out the tax point for a sale near a quarter end
• Decide how much input VAT can be reclaimed, including entertainment, cars, fuel and costs with private use
• Compare standard accounting with the Cash Accounting, Annual Accounting and Flat Rate schemes, including the limited cost business rule
• Keep VAT records that meet Making Tax Digital, with unbroken digital links, and complete all nine boxes of a VAT return
• Explain VAT deadlines, penalty points, late payment penalties and interest, and how errors are corrected
• Recognise the VAT rules for goods and services abroad, the construction reverse charge and cancelling a registration
• Prepare a full quarter's VAT return for a small business from its records, ready to discuss with an accountant

Frequently asked questions