VAT · UK

VAT registration: the £90,000 limit, the 30-day deadline and voluntary registration

You must register for VAT if your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, or you expect it to in the next 30 days alone. Register within 30 days. Below £90,000 you can register voluntarily. Once registered, you can ask to cancel if turnover falls below £88,000.

Last updated 17 Oct 2026 · Joel Lister, founder of Radar

Who this is for: sole traders, partnerships and companies based in the UK whose sales are growing towards the threshold, anyone thinking of registering before they have to, and anyone who should have registered already. (GOV.UK)

Who it is not for: businesses based outside the UK that supply goods or services to the UK: the threshold does not apply to them, and they must register whatever their turnover (GOV.UK, VAT Notice 700/1). VAT groups, Northern Ireland’s EU rules and the Agricultural Flat Rate Scheme have rules of their own (GOV.UK).

QuestionThe answerSource
Registration thresholdMore than £90,000 of taxable turnover. It has been £90,000 since 1 April 2024; before that it was £85,000.GOV.UK, Notice 700/1 supplement
The 12-month testAt the end of every month, add up your taxable turnover for the last 12 months. Over £90,000: register within 30 days of the end of that month.GOV.UK, Notice 700/1
Its effective dateThe first day of the second month after you went over. Over on 31 August: register by 30 September, registered from 1 October.Notice 700/1
The 30-day testIf you expect taxable turnover in the next 30 days alone to go over £90,000, register by the end of those 30 days.GOV.UK
Its effective dateThe date you realised, not the date turnover went over.GOV.UK
Deregistration thresholdTaxable turnover below £88,000: you can ask HMRC to cancel your registration.GOV.UK, GOV.UK
Voluntary registrationAllowed below £90,000, if you are in business. You can ask for it to be backdated by up to 4 years.GOV.UK, Notice 700/1
Registering lateYou are registered from the date you should have been, owe VAT on sales since then, and may be penalised.GOV.UK, Notice 700/1

The rules are from GOV.UK’s Register for VAT and HMRC’s VAT Notice 700/1: who should register for VAT, read on 17 October 2026.

The VAT registration limit

The VAT registration threshold is £90,000 of taxable turnover (GOV.UK). It rose from £85,000 on 1 April 2024, and the deregistration threshold rose from £83,000 to £88,000 at the same time (VAT Notice 700/1 supplement).

Taxable turnover is sales, not profit. It is the total value of everything you sell that is not VAT exempt or outside the scope of VAT. Zero-rated and reduced-rated sales count, and so do goods hired or loaned to customers, business goods used for personal reasons, goods bartered, part-exchanged or given as gifts, and services bought from overseas businesses under the reverse charge (GOV.UK). Sales of capital assets such as buildings, equipment or vehicles are left out (Notice 700/1, 3.4).

The rolling 12-month test

At the end of any month, check whether your taxable turnover for the previous 12 months, or less if you have traded for less, is over the threshold (Notice 700/1, 3.3). It is a rolling 12 months, not the tax year or your accounting year: the window moves on a month every month.

  • Deadline: register within 30 days of the end of the month in which you went over (GOV.UK).
  • Effective date of registration: the first day of the second month after you went over (GOV.UK).
  • HMRC’s example: taxable supplies go over the threshold on 31 August. You must tell HMRC by 30 September, and you are registered from 1 October (Notice 700/1, 4.4).

The 30-day forward-looking test

You must also register if you expect your taxable turnover to go over £90,000 in the next 30 days alone: a single large contract can do it (GOV.UK, Notice 700/1, 3.3).

  • Deadline: by the end of that 30-day period (GOV.UK).
  • Effective date of registration: the date you realised your turnover would go over, not the date it actually did (GOV.UK).

How to register with HMRC

Most businesses register online, signing in with HMRC sign-in details, which you can create the first time. You can save an application and finish it later. A limited company needs details such as its company registration number and Unique Taxpayer Reference; an individual or partnership needs a National Insurance number and an identity document. An accountant or agent can register and deal with HMRC for you (GOV.UK).

Form VAT1, by post, is needed for some cases instead, among them an exception from registration, the Agricultural Flat Rate Scheme, a local authority and an insolvency practitioner registering a business (GOV.UK).

HMRC then sends you a 9-digit VAT registration number, which you must show on every invoice, the date of your first VAT Return and payment, and confirmation of your effective date of registration. HMRC will sign your business up for Making Tax Digital for VAT unless you are exempt or have applied to be (GOV.UK).

Charging VAT while you wait for your number

From the effective date of registration you can charge VAT on sales and reclaim VAT on purchases. But you cannot include VAT on an invoice until your VAT number arrives. Meanwhile you can raise your prices to cover the VAT you will owe, then reissue the invoices showing the VAT once you have the number, so that customers can reclaim it (GOV.UK).

If you go over only temporarily

If your turnover went over the threshold in the last 12 months but you can show it will not go over the deregistration threshold in the next 12 months, you can apply for an exception from registration (GOV.UK, Notice 700/1, 3.7). Ask HMRC’s VAT helpline for form VAT1, saying you want an exception; it sends VAT1 and VAT5EXC to fill in and return, and replies within 40 working days. If it agrees, you must keep checking your turnover every month. If it refuses, it registers you from the date you became liable (GOV.UK).

Separately, if most of what you sell is zero-rated you can ask HMRC for an exemption from registration, but then you cannot reclaim the VAT you pay on business purchases (GOV.UK, Notice 700/1, 3.11).

Voluntary VAT registration

You can choose to register with taxable turnover below £90,000 (GOV.UK), but only if you are in business (Notice 700/1, 3.9). What it means:

  • You choose the start date, and can ask for it to be backdated by up to 4 years. Once you are registered, the date cannot change (Notice 700/1, 3.9).
  • You pay HMRC any VAT you owe from the date it registers you (GOV.UK).
  • VAT on what you bought before registering can be reclaimed within limits: goods for the business bought up to 4 years before the registration date, if you still have them, and services supplied no more than 6 months before it (Notice 700/1, 5.2).

If you register late

However late you tell HMRC, it registers you from the date you should have been registered, and you must account for VAT from that date even if you did not charge it to your customers (Notice 700/1, 4.6). In GOV.UK’s words, you must pay VAT on any sales made since the date you should have registered, and a penalty may depend on how much you owe and how late you are (GOV.UK).

A late VAT registration is a failure to notify: HMRC must be told within 30 days of going over the threshold (CC/FS11). The penalty is a share of the tax that is due, set by your behaviour and whether you told HMRC before you had reason to think it was about to find out:

  • Not deliberate: 0% to 30% if you tell HMRC unprompted within 12 months, 10% to 30% unprompted after 12 months or prompted within 12, and 20% to 30% prompted after 12 months.
  • Deliberate: 20% to 70% unprompted, 35% to 70% prompted.
  • Deliberate and concealed: 30% to 100% unprompted, 50% to 100% prompted.

Where in the range it falls depends on how fully you tell HMRC, help it and give it access to your records. There is no penalty if you had a reasonable excuse, the failure was not deliberate and you told HMRC without unreasonable delay once the excuse ended. You can appeal within 30 days (CC/FS11). Older notices quoting a 5%, 10% and 15% scale cover obligations from before 1 April 2010 only (Notice 700/41).

The VAT deregistration threshold

  • You can cancel if your taxable turnover is below £88,000 (GOV.UK).
  • You must cancel within 30 days if you stop being eligible, for example because you stop trading or making VAT taxable supplies, or join a VAT group, or you may be penalised (GOV.UK).
  • How: online through your business tax account, or by post with form VAT7. HMRC usually confirms within 40 working days (GOV.UK).
  • After cancelling: stop charging VAT from the cancellation date, send a final VAT Return for the period up to it, account for VAT on stock and assets you reclaimed VAT on if the total due is over £1,000, and keep your VAT records for 6 years (GOV.UK).

For the rest of the year’s tax dates, see UK tax year dates and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. A company’s own filing dates are in the company deadlines calculator.

What Radar does with this

  • Put a monthly turnover check on your Radar as an item that repeats on the first of each month: marked done, it moves on to the next month, so the rolling 12-month total is looked at when the rule says to look at it. Once you go over, put the 30-day registration deadline on it as a dated item of its own.

Radar reads the calendars, task lists and CRM you connect, and the dates you give it. It writes back only when you press a button, and it never sends anything by itself.

Limitations and status

  • Radar does not connect to HMRC, work out your taxable turnover or register you for VAT: you do those through HMRC, or your accountant does.
  • Radar does not tell you whether you must register or which test applies to you. HMRC’s guidance and the VAT helpline do that.
  • The thresholds, deadlines and penalty rules are HMRC’s, as GOV.UK gave them on 17 October 2026. If HMRC tells you something different for your own case, follow that.
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Questions

What is the VAT registration limit?

£90,000 of taxable turnover, measured over the last 12 months at the end of every month, or expected in the next 30 days alone. It has been £90,000 since 1 April 2024. (GOV.UK, Notice 700/1 supplement)

How long do I have to register for VAT?

30 days. On the 12-month test, 30 days from the end of the month you went over, and you are registered from the first day of the second month after. On the 30-day test, by the end of that 30-day period, registered from the date you realised. (GOV.UK)

Can I register for VAT voluntarily?

Yes, with taxable turnover below £90,000, as long as you are in business. You can ask for the registration to be backdated by up to 4 years, and you pay HMRC any VAT you owe from the date it registers you. (GOV.UK, Notice 700/1)

What happens if I register for VAT late?

HMRC registers you from the date you should have been registered, you owe VAT on sales since then even if you did not charge it, and you may be charged a failure to notify penalty. (Notice 700/1, CC/FS11)

When can I deregister from VAT?

When your taxable turnover is below £88,000, you can ask HMRC to cancel. If you stop being eligible, for example by stopping trading, you must cancel within 30 days. (GOV.UK)

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Written by Joel Lister, founder of Radar · first published 17 Oct 2026. Radar is made by Neos Technologies Ltd.