Simon Shaw
Partner, National Head of VAT
1 Reply:
UK VAT legislation and regulations are notoriously complex, and few businesses have in-house VAT specialists. It’s no surprise that HMRC are raising an increasing number of VAT assessments and penalties every year.
Our core business focuses on specialist VAT compliance and VAT consultancy. We’ll work with you closely to form a real understanding of your business, looking into the detail behind any transaction and adding significant value throughout the various phases of a project.
VAT gets everywhere and can have major implications for your business. It gets even more complicated if you’re a charity or not-for-profit. Partial exemption rules make things even more complicated. And they’re subject to change.
When it comes to VAT you need to remember that it’s a transactional tax. VAT errors occur in almost every business. Often these are not major errors but the danger with VAT is it can cause ongoing issues. An error can be repeated and compounded with every transaction your business carries out.
Getting it wrong can make you vulnerable to HMRC penalties.
HMRC expects businesses to pay due care and attention to the VAT rules. Whilst HMRC says it doesn’t view penalties as an additional revenue stream, that’s not always reflected in the behaviour of frontline staff.
Penalties for VAT errors are based on the conduct that led to the error occurring. If a business has made an error but has taken ‘reasonable care’, no penalty will be due.
Our core business focuses on specialist VAT compliance and consultancy. We’ll work with you closely to form a real understanding of your business, looking into the detail behind any transaction and adding significant value throughout the various phases of a project.
We’ll work with you to mitigate the VAT cost and administrative burden associated with material capital transactions. This includes your estate strategy, your Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) activity, property transactions and your outsourcing plans.
From basic support and checking of pre-prepared returns, right through to the full outsourcing of your VAT compliance function – working with our team will give you complete peace of mind.
Our VAT team have a strong, long-standing relationship with HMRC. And we’ve got a huge amount of experience in resolving VAT disputes in a collaborative, cost-efficient manner – giving you the peace of mind to stay focused on your business and its growth.
We’ll help you with an end-to-end independent review of your internal processes for Senior Accounting Officer (SAO) compliance purposes. We’ll talk you through any risks, and together we’ll overcome the unique challenges this regime can present.
We offer market leading products and support to future proof your VAT function. Our solutions give you centralised visibility over global indirect tax obligations, trend analysis, error detection, tailored checks and analytics, and end-to-end process simplification.
We understand the complexities that come with trading overseas. We can help you conduct a thorough supply chain review keeping you compliant and efficient.
Comes into force April 2022. The tax applies to company’s that manufacture plastic packaging or import plastic packaging into the UK and the plastic packaging contains less than 30% recycled plastic, it even includes packaging that is already filled.
Damian Shirley
VAT Partner
“Team efficiently led by Zahib under the tutorage of Katie, focusing on the key issues early, rather than the routine chaf, whilst working effectively with our central team and local teams. NED’s like the comms, telling us the issues rather than maybe other advisors telling us how wonderful they are. I’ve just about got used to the colour scheme 😉 . Already recommended CP – says it all!”
“Good communication, proactive team.”
“Extremely professional and pragmatic – a breath of fresh air.”
“Excellent delivery.”
“Efficient and personable service with a good understanding of our business.”
“Well planned audit, good communication and team on site showed a great understanding of the business.”
“We have excellent access to our audit partner. The audit team are professional and the assignment is well ran and to time. The quality of reports is great and everyone likes the way they are presented. We have tapped into other advisory services and found the support and advice excellent. Can’t think of any improvements needed.”
“Easy to work with, responsive and to the point.”
“Great service, competent and low maintenance (in a nice way!).”
“Very smooth audit, and turned round very quickly. Thank you!”