New guidance on historic VAT claims
HMRC have recently published their internal guidance covering historic VAT claims. The title of the document mentions only Fleming and Condé Nast claims, however this document will be of interest to any business that has made historic VAT claims. These could relate as far back as to the introduction of VAT in 1973.
All deadlines for submitting these claims have now passed. The last major deadline concerned ‘Fleming’ type claims and expired on 31 March 2009.
However a large number of claims remain outstanding and this document will assist in clarifying the issues that may arise in discussions with HMRC. These issues could include looking at the way the claim was calculated, the arguments concerning ‘unjust enrichment’, the accounting periods for which claims were made, checking the correct VAT rates and the evidence to support the claims.