VAT Investigations

VAT investigations


VAT rules are notoriously complex and this can lead to your business overpaying or underpaying tax. The VAT authorities also have wide-reaching powers to investigate issues including evasion and criminal offences, such as fraud. In certain cases investigations can go back 20 years.


Potential consequences include the recovery of underpaid VAT, plus penalties and interest. If the matter is deemed to be a criminal activity, prosecutions can lead to fines, prison sentences and seizure of assets.


Whilst the VAT authorities are very active with regards to finding people who owe VAT they're not so invested in letting people know when you've paid too much VAT and that's another reason to get an expert to have a look at your VAT payments to make sure you're not overpaying.


How to avoid VAT Investigations?


The easy solution to getting investigated for not paying the right VAT is to make sure you are! It sounds simple and it is, if you have the right financial support in place.


In most cases where VAT payments are incorrectly made is because of a bad accountant or in most cases the accounting being completed by someone who is inexperienced (typically the business owner to save on costs). We would always recommend hiring an expert who has experience to help with your accounting to ensure you avoid any future costs for incorrect VAT payments or any other charges for the many different issues around incorrect accounting.


Why Choose Edelle to help with your VAT investigations


If your business is under investigation on a VAT issue or you think that you've been paying too much VAT over the years, you need should employ the expert help of tax specialists.


Edelle Chartered Accountants Hub and our specialist sister firm, Taxation-Investigation, can provide advice and support to identify the most effective way forward. We can represent you in dealings with the VAT authorities, including making disclosures and advise you on the best way to achieve an appropriate outcome.


This means that you can achieve an affordable payment plan should it be found that you own VAT, you could avoid the loss of assets or at least a temporary hold off an asset seizure based off payments being met. And in some rare cases we can avoid prison sentences by proving there wasn't intent to avoid the VAT payments or paying incorrect amounts.


That said we can offer these services at an affordable cost because our expert team have been handling VAT investigations for years now and for businesses of varying sizes. You know that when you choose Edelle to help with your VAT investigation hat you can get back to working on growing your business whilst we take care of the investigation and legal proceedings.


If at any point in time you have a question regarding your investigation or just regarding any accounting or finance issues feel free to give is a call or get in touch online and we will get one of our experts to respond to you regarding your questions or concerns.