Covid-19: VAT payments deferred for three months

The government has announced a three-month deferral for VAT payments until end June for all UK businesses with HMRC working all hours to thrash out the detail

The VAT deferral will apply from 20 March 2020 until 30 June 2020.

This is an automatic offer with no applications required. Businesses will not need to make a VAT payment during this period.

Taxpayers will be given until the end of the 2020 to 2021 tax year to pay any liabilities that have accumulated during the deferral period.

VAT refunds and reclaims will be paid by the government as normal.

It is not clear as yet how the scheme will work under Making Tax Digital for VAT reporting, for example requiring a ‘1’ or ‘0’ entry to validate.

An HMRC spokesperson told Accountancy Daily: ‘HMRC is urgently working through the details of the announcement and will advise businesses as soon as we can.’