VATAAS4200 - Payments: if interim payment amounts are too high, or low

If a business feels the interim payments are not an accurate reflection of its future VAT liability (that is, they have been set too high, or too low), it can provide information to allow the level of payments to be re-assessed.

There may be other circumstances where a business wishes to increase the size of its interim payments even though the overall annual liability will remain largely unchanged.

A decision on changing the interim payments should be taken locally based on information provided by the business. You should take a flexible approach in such circumstances.

Note 1: A business’s interim payments cannot be reduced to less than 10% (monthly returns) or 25% (quarterly returns) of its expected annual VAT liability.

Note 2: A business has a legal obligation to notify us if its annual turnover increases by 10% or more.