I use Accrual Accounting for my VAT and I assume that all my invoices will be in there even including those that are zero rated, exempt or out of scope. I admit that I have not idea what these terms mean. For some reason I marked one of my invoices as out of scope or exempt and then when I did my VAT return the invoice got missed out of box 6. Is this correct?
Government advice is as follows:
" Box 6 total value of sales and all other outputs excluding any VAT
Show the total value of all your business sales and other specific outputs but leave out any VAT. Some examples are:
zero-rated, reduced rate and exempt supplies…"
Can anyone explain this to me in simple terms? I really do want all my invoices in there as I use this data for my business accounts in the end for income tax. Why miss anything out??
Further to this can I add that the transactions in question are mostly for overseas customers so VAT does not apply to them, but I wonder are they classed as exempt and if so is it right that the software misses them out of box 6 of the tax return??
Reading these links it seems clear that my invoices to foreign customers including EU will simply be zero VAT and do not need to be marked as exempt.
Exempt would be financial, medical and educational and… I sell books, so I googled whether these are exempt and found this little gem: " There are certain exemptions for specific types of printed matter. Books, booklets, brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, newspapers, journals, and periodicals are all zero-rated for VAT purposes. This means that these items are exempt from VAT, and no tax is added to their sale price."
WTF are they zero rated or exempt? Do I even care, and why should I, since the guidance is so obscure. Seems like both would be included in box 6 anyway according to the guidance you have linked. Any hints on whether and why these should be exempt would be welcome.
As for out of scope, some guidance suggests this applies to internal transfers between accounts but I do not understand why any actual invoice as such should be marked as out of scope.
The support team are not registered accountants and as such could not comment, I would reccomend speaking to your accountant for professional tailored advice.
If you don’t have an accountant, we have a panel of accountants (familiar with QuickFile) to choose from, for more information, please see the following link:
There are subtle differences between zero-rated, exempt and out of scope. The only one (either sales or purchases) that should be excluded from your VAT return is “out of scope”. This is for things like wages, journal entries, etc. which are not within the charge to VAT.
Zero-rated means that it’s a taxable supply, but currently the rate of VAT on that supply is 0%. It could change in the future.
Exempt, means that it’s within the scope of VAT but is currently exempt from tax, as you correctly state this includes things like insurance, bank fees, etc.
Both these supplies should be included on the VAT return, although it makes no difference to the overall totals!