Services
VAT Accountant in Catford
A VAT accountant in Catford, SE6, for everything from working out whether you should register to filing every quarterly return under Making Tax Digital, on time and correctly.
Reviewed by Rehan Razzaq FCCA, founder of REYS Accountants. Last reviewed October 2026.
What's included
- Guidance on whether and when you need to register for VAT
- Advice on which VAT scheme suits your business (standard, flat rate, or cash accounting)
- Quarterly VAT returns prepared and filed under Making Tax Digital
- Your VAT liability calculated ahead of the payment deadline
- A plain-English explanation of what you owe and why, every quarter
Do you actually need to register?
VAT registration becomes mandatory once your taxable turnover goes over the current registration threshold in any rolling 12-month period, not just your accounting year. HMRC publishes the current threshold, since it's reviewed periodically and we'd rather you check the live figure than a number that's gone stale on a webpage. Our guide to when you need to register for VAT in 2026 walks through both tests and the deadlines.
You can also register voluntarily below that threshold, sometimes worth it if your customers are VAT-registered businesses who can reclaim the VAT you charge them, or if you want to reclaim VAT on your own costs before you're required to.
Which VAT scheme is right for you?
Standard VAT accounting means you pay HMRC the difference between VAT charged on sales and VAT paid on purchases, straightforward if your records are accurate, painful if they're not. The flat rate scheme replaces that calculation with a fixed percentage of your turnover, simpler admin, but not always cheaper, it depends heavily on how much VAT-able expenditure your business actually has. Cash accounting, meanwhile, means you account for VAT when money actually changes hands rather than when an invoice is raised, which can help cash flow if your customers pay slowly.
Switching schemes later isn't disastrous, but it does mean a transition calculation to avoid double-counting or missing transactions, one more reason to get the choice right from the start rather than guess and fix it later.
How it works
From registration to filed return.
We check where you stand
Whether you need to register now, should register voluntarily, or aren't there yet, and which scheme suits your business.
Your software is set up
Making Tax Digital-compatible from day one, so every quarter's return pulls straight from your real records.
We file, on time, every quarter
You'll know what you owe and why before it's submitted, not after the payment's already left your account.
Common questions
VAT, answered.
HMRC's requirement that VAT-registered businesses keep digital records and file returns through compatible software rather than manually through HMRC's website. Full details are on gov.uk.
Usually quarterly, with payment due one calendar month and seven days after the end of the period. Some businesses use monthly or annual schemes instead, depending on cash flow and turnover. Our guide to your first VAT return explains the deadlines and the 9 boxes.
It depends on your turnover, margins and how much VAT you pay on purchases, standard, flat rate and cash accounting each suit different businesses. This is exactly the kind of thing worth a proper look at your numbers rather than a generic answer, which is where good bookkeeping pays for itself.
HMRC's penalty system charges points for each late submission, and once you hit the threshold for your filing frequency, a financial penalty follows, on top of separate interest on VAT paid late. Persistent lateness escalates quickly, so it's worth flagging early if a deadline is at risk rather than after it's passed.