I’ve had a client for approximately six months and invoices have been
issued fortnightly for most of that time. All of the invoices have been
paid.
Now, the customer wants me to re-issue the invoices with different
dates. The requested dates must match the month in which the work was
carried out. For example, my invoice issued 3rd October must be
re-issued with the date 30th September as it is for services rendered in
September. I’'m registered for VAT and am worried about:
How HMRC will view these changes
If changing them is even possible
The reason given for making these changes is to facilitate his
management accounting. My work is billable to a third party so he wants
to track costs on a monthly basis.
In that case what I would recommend is to change the issue date of the invoice but keep the tax date of the invoice the same. HMRC should be happy that they have been entered into the correct period and should work for your client as well. You might want to phone HMRC to confirm they are happy with that idea. Their number is 0300 200 3700 but be prepared for a long wait.
In terms of how you would move just the invoice date and not the tax date that might be a question for @QFMathew to answer rather than myself.