VAT is one of those areas where "roughly right" isn't actually right, and where the software doing the sums for you doesn't mean the input is correct. A VAT return is only as good as the treatment behind it, and treatment is exactly where mistakes creep in: the wrong rate applied to a supply, input VAT reclaimed on something that shouldn't have been, a scheme that made sense two years ago but doesn't anymore.
What I do is prepare each return from your reconciled figures, review the VAT treatment line by line rather than accepting whatever the software has defaulted to, and submit it digitally under Making Tax Digital before the deadline. If a business needs to register or deregister, I handle that too, including working out the right timing so you're not left exposed either way.
Making Tax Digital, in plain terms
If you're VAT registered, MTD isn't optional. It requires digital records and a digital link from those records through to the return itself, filed through MTD-compatible software rather than typed manually into HMRC's old portal. I file everything through compliant software as a matter of course, so this is one part of the process you genuinely don't need to think about. It's simply built into how the return gets done.
Getting the scheme right
There isn't one VAT scheme that suits every business, and the scheme you're on affects both your admin and, sometimes, how much VAT you actually pay. The standard scheme is the default: VAT accounted for on invoices issued and received. Cash accounting can suit businesses with tighter cash flow, since VAT is only due once you've actually been paid. The flat rate scheme trades detailed input VAT tracking for a simpler flat percentage of turnover, and can suit some smaller service businesses, though it doesn't suit everyone and needs checking against your actual figures rather than assumed to be a saving.
I review scheme suitability rather than leaving a business on whatever it defaulted onto at registration. Businesses change, and a scheme chosen three years ago at a different size or turnover isn't automatically still the right one.
What goes wrong when this isn't checked
The errors that cause the most trouble with VAT are rarely big, obvious mistakes. They're small, quiet ones: a supply zero-rated when it should have been standard-rated, VAT reclaimed on an expense that was partly or wholly disallowable, a return filed a day late because nobody was tracking the deadline. Individually minor. Cumulatively, they're exactly what triggers HMRC's attention, and unwinding a pattern of small errors is a great deal more work, and more costly, than getting each return right the first time. Integrity, in my CAPID framework, means the treatment gets checked rather than assumed, every single quarter, not just when something looks obviously wrong.
Where it fits in the Clarity Package
VAT returns are included in the Clarity Package for any client that's VAT registered. If your business isn't VAT registered, this element simply isn't part of the fee, deducted rather than charged for and unused. Because it draws directly on the bookkeeping already being kept current, there's no separate reconciliation exercise each quarter. The figures are already there and ready.
Everything is agreed as a fixed fee in writing before we start.
More on how I approach this kind of work at my method.
Book a free discovery call or email me directly and we'll talk through where your VAT position actually stands.