Andrew Needham highlights changes HMRC has made to the processing of late return central assessments.
VAT returns and payments should be submitted to HMRC no later than seven days after the end of the month following the end of the VAT period. If the return and/or payment is late, it can result in the business entering either or both of the penalty regimes for late payments or late returns.
If the return has still not been submitted about six weeks after the end of the VAT period or two weeks after the due date for sending in the return, HMRC will produce a ‘central assessment’ for the VAT it estimates the business owes. The assessment is calculated on the liability of previous VAT returns and is normally inflated to encourage the submission and payment of the VAT return by the due date. If a business is persistently late, the level of the assessment is inflated by greater amounts to encourage
