Hi, I’m hoping someone can help.
I am due to file my first VAT return through QuickFile in Sep 2019.
I have a laptop purchase I made to start my business (Sole trader) on 1st Dec 2018.
The laptop was purchased prior to me registering for VAT. I have a complete VAT receipt and wish to claim back the VAT.
I have entered the purchase on quickfile as 1st Dec 2018. How do I correctly claim this through the MTD quickfile system? Is the purchase dated correctly? Do I need to file a VAT claim now for a previous period or does this get picked up on my Sep 19 return?
You have presumably set your “vat start date” in settings to the date you became VAT registered (if you don’t do that then it’ll try to include all your earlier sales and purchases in boxes 6 and 7 of your first return), do nothing prior to this date will be included automatically by QuickFile.
You’ll probably need to make a manual adjustment to your first return. Since you weren’t VAT registered when you originally bought the laptop you will have entered it in QuickFile at the gross total including VAT, and that will have been posted to something like “office equipment” or “plant and machinery”. So you need to
- work out how much of the original purchase was actually VAT (the vat receipt will tell you that)
- create a journal to credit that amount to the code you originally used for the purchase and debit the same to “manual adjustments”
- when you come to do the VAT return use the drop down arrows to add the VAT amount to box 4 and the net amount to box 7
The overall result of this will be to adjust the asset code to just the ex VAT amount you paid and claim back the VAT from HMRC.
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