If applicable to your business you should act now so that you can benefit from postponed VAT accounting (PVA) if VAT-registered and importing goods into:
• Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) from anywhere outside the UK ;
• Northern Ireland from outside the UK and EU.
PVA allows for the declaration and recovery of import VAT on the same VAT Return, rather than having to pay it upfront and recover it later.
There is more guidance on how to:
check when you can account for import VAT on your VAT Return
complete your VAT Return to account for import VAT
Your business will not need approval to benefit from PVA, but will need to access the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) to view and download monthly statements – in PDF format.
You would then need these statements to complete your VAT Returns or to send them to whoever completes the VAT Return on your behalf.
Businesses should subscribe to the new service as soon as possible.