Paying your VAT Bill

5 mins

Our tax preparation specialists help you to pay your VAT bill correctly and on time

At DSR Tax Refunds Ltd, we know that sorting out your VAT bill can sometimes get complicated. That’s why our experts want to help make life as easy as possible for you by sharing our specialist knowledge with you. So, whether you are wanting more information about VAT or need to know about charitable tax relief, our handy guides are here to help. All our information is based on HMRC sources, so you can rest assured that these guides are filled with helpful and accurate information.

Paying a VAT bill

Before you pay your VAT bill, you need to know when your deadline is. Your payment deadline will be shown on your VAT return or you can log in to your online VAT account to find out more information regarding your payment deadline.

Deadlines will differ if you use either the Annual Accounting Scheme or payments on account.

You will also pay by a different deadline if you want to pay a VAT MOSS (Mini One-Stop Shop) bill – these concern businesses who sell digital services in the UK and across the EU.

There are a number of ways you can pay your VAT bill by using one of the following methods:

If your deadline falls on either a bank holiday or a weekend, you must make sure your payment reaches HMRC on the last working day before the bank holiday or weekend. If you use Faster Payments, via online or telephone banking, this doesn’t concern you.

Paying by Direct Debit

You can set up a Direct Debit payment using your VAT online account. You need to do this at least 3 working days before you submit your online VAT return so that the Direct Debit can be set up in time to meet your payment deadline. Once set up, the Direct Debit will automatically take payments from your bank account 3 working days after the deadline on your VAT return. If your VAT return is submitted late, the payments will be taken 3 days after you submit the VAT return.

If you have a ‘payments on account’ arrangement with HMRC, you can’t use Direct Debit.

Even if you have a Direct Debt set up, repayments will not be paid directly into the same bank account unless you update your online VAT accordingly. If you don’t do this, VAT repayments will be sent to you from HMRC by cheque.

If your business uses an Annual Accounting Scheme for VAT, you can only use your online VAT service to set up a Direct Debit to pay balancing payments. To make regular VAT payments by Direct Debit, you need to send form VAT 623 to HMRC.

Paying by online or telephone banking or by CHAPS or Bacs

You will need the following bank account details if you want to use online or telephone banking (using Faster Payments), Bacs or CHAPS to pay your VAT bill:

Sort Code Account Number Account Name
08-32-00 11963155 HMRC VAT

You will need your 9-digit registration number to pay your VAT bill in this way – you can find this in either your online VAT account or on your VAT registration certificate. Don’t put any spaces between the digits or you may find that your payment is delayed.

Faster Payments (online or telephone banking) will usually reach HMRC on the same day or the next day – this includes bank holidays and weekends.

CHAPS payments usually reach HMRC on the same working day if your payment is made within your bank’s usual processing times.

BACS payments usually take 3 working days.

In order to make sure your payment reaches HMRC in time for your VAT deadline, make sure you check your bank’s transaction limits and processing times before making a payment.

Debit and corporate credit card payments

You can use a debit card or corporate credit card to pay your VAT bill online. You are not allowed to use a personal credit card to pay a VAT bill.

If you use a corporate credit card you will have to pay a fee, which is not refundable.

If you can’t pay your total VAT bill using a debit or credit card, you should use a different method to ensure that your payment is made in one transaction.

It will take about 3 working days for your payment to reach HMRC’s bank account.

Paying at your bank or building society

If you want to pay over the counter at your local bank or building society, you need to order paying-in slips before you can pay your VAT this way. It can take up to 6 weeks for these to arrive so you might need to pay by another method while you wait. The paying-in slips can be ordered online or by phone from HMRC.

Once you have the paying-in slips you can pay your VAT bill by cash or cheque at your bank or building society. Make sure you use the correct reference number or your payment could be delayed. Allow 3 working days for the payment to reach HMRC’s bank account.

Setting up a standing order

If your business uses the Annual Accounting Scheme or makes payments on account, you can set up a standing order to pay your VAT bill. Standing orders payments take about 3 working days to reach HMRC’s bank account.

If you use the Annual Accounting Scheme, you can request to pay by standing order on your application form. Once you have been accepted for the scheme, you can set up a standing order using for VAT 622 or through online or telephone banking.

If you make payments on account, use form VAT 622 or online or telephone banking to set up a standing order.

Checking your VAT payment has been received by HMRC

You can check whether your payment has been received by viewing your online VAT account – it should update within 48 hours.

Paying a VAT MOSS bill

If you need to pay a quarterly VAT MOSS (Mini One Stop Shop) bill, you will need to make your payments in line with the following deadlines:

If any of these deadlines fall on a weekend of bank holiday, your payment must reach HMRC by the last working day before.

If your business is registered in the UK you can use Faster Payments, CHAPs or Bacs to pay your VAT MOSS bill. These should go to the Union VAT MOSS account. You will need your VAT registration number to make a payment.

The Union VAT MOSS account details are as follows:

Sort Code Account Number Account Name
08-32-00 12001047 HMRC VAT ON E

If you also have a normal UK VAT payment to make, you cannot combine this with your VAT MOSS payment because HMRC use different bank accounts for each type of payment.

If your business is not registered in the UK, you will need to use the Non-Union VAT MOSS bank details to make your payment. These bank details are as follows:

Account Number (IBAN) Bank Identifier Code (BIC) Account Name
GB34BARC20051710753491 BARCGB22 HMRC VAT ON E

In order to prevent underpaying HMRC due to bank charges, you need to ask your bank to use the code ‘OUR’ in the ‘Detail of charge’ field when they process your payment.

If you need the bank address details when making a Non-Union MOSS VAT payment, they are as follows:

Barclays Bank PLC

1 Churchill Place

London

UK

E14 5HO

How can DSR Tax Refunds Ltd help?

We know that paying your VAT bill on time can get pretty complicated, that’s why we have created these handy guides to help you. Our friendly team of tax specialists at DSR Tax Refunds Ltd are on hand to help make life easier for you. We’re the experts at identifying your maximum allowable expenses so call us on 0330 122 9972 – we’re the tax experts you can trust. 

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