Accounts and records for your VAT

If you are registered for VAT, you must keep certain business records and VAT records of your sales and purchases. You must also keep a separate summary of your VAT, called a 'VAT account'.

There is no set way of keeping these records and accounts. In most cases, they can be easily adapted from your normal business records. The main thing is to ensure that they are complete and up to date and that it is easy for VAT officers to access them when you have a VAT inspection.

This guide explains how to go about keeping your business records, VAT records and VAT account and provides links to further information about what you need to do if you are using one or more of the special VAT accounting schemes.

Help from the Inland Revenue web site