You might have read that new procedures were expected to be introduced on 1 October 2019, which affect any VAT-registered construction business that does the following:
GOOD NEWS!
Due to pressures from the industry over concern of the preparedness of businesses, as well as the timing issues caused by Brexit, HMRC has announced an extension to the scheme which will now commence from 1 October 2020. However, they have confirmed that they remain committed to the scheme’s implementation, so let's take a look in a bit more detail.
What is changing and why?
Under current rules, you charge VAT on your sales to customers, collect the VAT and account for it in Box 1 of your relevant VAT return.
This is changing for supplies between VAT-registered builders. Under the new rules, you will invoice your builder customers without charging VAT, and the customer makes the Box 1 entry instead on their own VAT return.
In effect, there will be no cash flow issue for your customers because the same amount of VAT declared in Box 1 will also be included as input tax in Box 4: ie a nil effect overall. This is known in VAT speak as a “reverse charge” procedure.
HMRC has identified that certain builder supplies have been prone to VAT fraud, where the supplier charges VAT to his customer, receives money for this VAT from the customer but never declares it on a VAT return. The new procedures aim to prevent this from happening because the supplier is never paid VAT in the first place.
Which sales are caught by the new rules?
The new reverse charge procedures will apply to the following transactions:
So how will it all work exactly?
Example
David is a VAT registered sole trader providing services as an electrician. He is doing some work on an office block, invoicing the main contractor Steve for his work.
Steve is also VAT registered, and will then invoice the building owner. Steve is not an “end-user” because he is making an onward supply of construction services to his own customer. He is an “intermediary supplier”.
The invoice raised by David will be subject to the new procedures ie no VAT is charged. Let’s say the value of his work including materials will be for £5,000:
David’s VAT return will only include the value of the sale in Box 6 (outputs) of his VAT return:
Box 6 – outputs - £5,000 |
Steve will do the reverse charge calculation and make the following entries on his return:
Box 1 – output tax £1,000 (ie £5,000 x 20%) Box 4 – input tax - £1,000 (same figure as Box 1) Box 7 – inputs - £5,000 (net value of payment made to Steve) |
Other issues to consider
Taking the Steve and David example a stage further, they each have their own responsibilities with the new rules.
David must ensure that Steve is both registered for CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) and also has a valid VAT number. He must also specify on his sales invoices the amount and rate of VAT that Steve must declare with the reverse charge ie 5% or 20% VAT.
David should include wording on the sales invoice along the lines of: “Reverse charge: customer to pay the VAT to HMRC.”
Steve must tell David if he is an “end-user” or “intermediary supplier”. If he is an intermediary supplier, then David will not charge him VAT because the reverse charge applies.
It is important that Steve does not pay VAT incorrectly to David because HMRC could raise an assessment for the VAT that he should have declared, ie as if the reverse charge had been done correctly.
Here are a few other points to consider:
Penalties issued by HMRC for errors
HMRC has confirmed that penalties will not be charged for mistakes with the new procedures up until 31 March 2020, the exception being if “you are deliberately taking advantage of the measure by not accounting for it correctly.”
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Blog source: AccountingWeb
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