Key points
- A business can only deregister from a current or future date.
- When a business deregisters it may need to consider sharing part or all of the VAT saving with its customers.
- It will also be necessary to review the mix of zero-rated and standard-rated sales.
- Bear in mind the output tax rules about stock and assets owned at the time of deregistration.
VAT has not been dining at the captain’s table on the luxury cruise liner for many years as far as the chancellor’s Spring Budgets are concerned. Important announcements about the nation’s favourite tax have been as absent as a lottery winner in a discount store.
In my view the reason that VAT has only picked up the scraps at the pauper’s table is simple: despite the fact that 12 years have passed since George Osborne’s infamous ‘pasty tax’ budget in 2012 – when 20p tax...