How to side-step HMRC penalties whilst aiming for a savings goal…

Liaison Financial

The NHS is subject to its own specific VAT rules and Liaison Financial has been providing specialist VAT services to the NHS for 30 years, aiming to maximise VAT recovery opportunities while still helping them stay compliant with HMRC.

Last year our VAT specialists recovered an additional £60.3million of underclaimed VAT for regular NHS customers as well as a further £5.2million of missed underclaims found when we re-reviewed similar work carried out at NHS organisations by other advisory firms. That means Liaison Financial is reviewing the VAT for around 40% of NHS trusts and health boards and the resulting huge sum of additional VAT savings identified could in theory fund 174 nursing posts for the NHS.

So, our Liaison Financial VAT advisors spend a lot of time with NHS organisations’ finance teams reviewing and re-reviewing their VAT recoveries and payments, and these organisations are benefitting from just over £65million in additional VAT recovery.  Importantly, they are also remaining compliant and reducing their risk of fines and penalties from HMRC.

It is this long-term relationship with the NHS and HMRC that puts us in an unrivalled position in terms of VAT rules and regulations that are specific to the NHS. Our regular dialogue with HMRC and our commitment to remaining fully up to date on the latest decisions and treatment of NHS means we know what HMRC are looking for when they want  NHS organisations to demonstrate they have taken “reasonable care” in terms of their VAT recoveries and payments.

In a drive to make NHS finance teams more self-sufficient, HMRC is now asking them what they are doing to keep their staff up to date on VAT regulations and changes. Organisations that demonstrate an investment into their teams’ knowledge and understanding of NHS VAT changes are reaping the rewards in terms of a more positive profile with HMRC, and are more likely to be seen as ‘low VAT risk’.

More than 60 NHS organisations have benefitted from Liaison Financial’s CPD accredited VAT training sessions and around 800 NHS employees have attended our courses and webinars in 2018 alone. They’ve been kept up to date with the Making Tax Digital, VAT within the NHS on charitable funds and endowments and facing up to the changes in employment tax.  We even start with an introduction to VAT in the NHS for new employees or existing staff who want a refresher on recent changes to the contracted-out services or ‘COS codes’ for the NHS.

Earn more ‘good’ points with the HMRC  – sign your teams up to one of our VAT training events here.