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If your business circumstances change you must tell HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Certain changes can affect, or even require you to cancel your VAT registration. In most cases you need to tell HMRC within 30 calendar days, or you may face a financial penalty. In some cases the time limit is shorter or you may even need to give advance notice.
This guide explains what changes in circumstances need to be reported to HMRC, it also explains the action you need to take and by when you need to take that action.
Other changes in your business circumstances may mean you want to cancel your registration voluntarily. This guide explains when you might be able to apply to do this.
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Your VAT registration is based on the information you supplied to HMRC when you registered. So if your business circumstances change you should tell HMRC straight away - and definitely within 30 calendar days otherwise you could face a financial penalty.
You need to tell HMRC if any of the following change:
You can report the changes to HMRC either online or in writing using form VAT 484. You can't tell HMRC about changes to your details by telephone or by email.
Go to form VAT 484 Notifying us of changes to a VAT registered business
See the section in this guide on how to change your registration details online.
If you are representing someone who has died or is ill, then you have the same VAT obligations as that person. This will continue until any one of the following happens:
You must contact HMRC within 21 calendar days of taking on this responsibility and provide details of the date of death or the date on which the illness began (as appropriate).
If you are in a partnership and one of the partners has died, then either you or another partner must write to HMRC within 30 calendar days of the date of death. You also need to do this if you and at least one other remaining partner intend to continue in business
If you are the only surviving partner and you want to recruit another partner, you must write to HMRC within 30 calendar days of the new appointment. If you decide to continue the business as a sole proprietor, you should report this within 30 calendar days of the change taking place.
You can notify HMRC of changes to your business either online or in writing using form VAT 484. You can't tell HMRC about changes to your details by telephone or by email.
Go to form VAT 484 Notifying us of changes to a VAT registered business
See the section in this guide on how to change your registration details online.
If your business is a partnership and there are any changes - a partner leaves, a new partner joins or both, then you must tell HMRC. You also have to tell HMRC if the name or home address of any partner in the business changes.
You need to tell HMRC about these changes within 30 calendar days. You can't tell HMRC about these changes by telephone or by email, use form VAT 2 and send it to:
HM Revenue & Customs
VAT Registration Service
Deansgate
62-70 Tettenhall Road
Wolverhampton
WV1 4TZ
If you own a business and go into a partnership, or your partnership ceases to exist and one of the former partners becomes the sole owner of the business, this is a change in the legal status of your business - see the section in this guide for what to do when the legal status of your business changes.
Go to form VAT 2 Value Added Tax - Partnership Details
A change in the legal status of your business might happen when, for example, a company (or other incorporated body) is formed to take over a business previously run by a sole proprietor or group of people, such as a partnership or club - or if a business previously carried on by a company (or other incorporated body) is taken over by a sole proprietor or group of people.
If you change the legal status of your business, then you must complete a new VAT registration application. You must also either:
Go to form VAT 68 Request for transfer of a registration number
Read more about cancelling your VAT registration
Find out how to registering for VAT
See our guide on taking over a business and VAT registration
You need to tell HMRC within 30 calendar days if your main business activity changes.
Circumstances in which you must cancel your VAT registration include the following:
You can choose to cancel your registration if your goods and services become wholly or mainly zero-rated, even if your turnover is above the annual registration threshold - currently £77,000.
If you make standard rated supplies and your turnover exceeds the annual registration limit - currently £77,000 - you can only cancel your registration if your input tax normally exceeds your output tax. When you write to HMRC, explain why you think you should be exempt from registration. You can notify HMRC of changes to the goods and services you supply either online or in writing using form VAT 484. You can't notify HMRC of changes to your business details by telephone or by email.
You don't need to tell HMRC if you start trading internationally. However, you will need to start completing EC Sales Lists (ESLs) if you sell goods or certain services to VAT-registered businesses in other European Union (EU) countries.
See the section in this guide on how to change your registration details online.
Go to form VAT 484 Notifying us of changes to a VAT registered business
More about VAT and international trade
ESLs: completing and submitting, online or on paper
See our guide to cancelling your VAT registration
If your turnover drops, or the volume of goods you trade with the EU falls, you may be entitled to voluntarily cancel your VAT registration. You can do this by completing form VAT 7 and returning it to HMRC. You can't cancel your VAT registration by telephone or by email.
You can ask HMRC to cancel your VAT registration when your annual VAT taxable turnover falls, or you expect it to fall in the next 12 months, below the threshold for deregistration - currently £75,000.
If you want to do this, you must write to HMRC to explain the drop in your turnover. Possible reasons might include a reduction in opening times, loss of contracts or changes in your business practices. You'll have to give HMRC your anticipated turnover for the next year.
You won't be allowed to cancel your registration if the reduction in your turnover is due to your intention to stop trading or suspend making taxable supplies for 30 days or more in the next 12 months.
If you are based in another EU country and are distance selling to the UK, you can apply to cancel your registration if the annual value of your distance sales falls below the registration threshold for distance selling - currently £70,000. You can also apply to cancel your registration if you no longer plan to make the UK your place of supply for distance sales.
A drop in acquisitions from other EU countries
If you are registered for VAT because you have previously gone over the threshold for making acquisitions from other EU countries, then you can apply to cancel your VAT registration provided the following conditions have been met:
If you registered for VAT on a voluntary basis and your business continues to trade you must remain VAT registered for a minimum of two calendar years. If your business has ceased to trade then you may apply to cancel your registration at any time.
You can cancel your VAT Registration by completing form VAT 7 and returning it to HMRC.
Until your registration is cancelled, you'll have to carry on charging, and accounting for, VAT. HMRC may refuse your request for voluntary deregistration, in which case you'll have to carry on charging, and accounting for, VAT.
See information about cancelling your VAT registration
Go to form VAT 7 Application to Cancel your VAT Registration
It's very important to let HMRC know if your bank details are going to change, because these details are used to make repayments to you. You can do this using VAT online services or in writing on form VAT 484 but in either case you must give at least 14 days' notice of any change.
You can't notify HMRC of changes to your bank details by telephone or by email. If you do not tell HMRC about a change to your bank details, repayments may continue to be paid to your original account.
Please note that HMRC can't change your Direct Debit Instruction when you notify them of changes to your bank details, whether you notify online or in writing. You will have to issue a new Direct Debit Instruction by contacting your bank - see below.
If you pay your VAT by Direct Debit, you'll also have to change your Direct Debit instruction. You need to do this via your bank, who will automatically advise HMRC of any changes. However, you shouldn't change your details within five banking days either side of your VAT return due date, as it may mean HMRC can't collect your payment. If that happens and the payment is late, you'll be liable to a surcharge.
If you change your Direct Debit details in this way, this will not change the bank details that HMRC holds for making repayments of VAT to you. You must notify these details separately as described above, otherwise repayments will continue to be made using the old details.
Go to form VAT 484 Notifying us of changes to a VAT registered business
See the section in this guide on how to change your registration details online.
If you use the Annual Accounting Scheme and you change your bank account number and/or sort code, then this will affect your Direct Debit arrangements for your payments under the scheme. You must tell your bank and write to the Annual Accounting Registration Unit at the following address, quoting your registration number and providing your new account details:
HM Revenue & Customs
Annual Accounting Registration Unit
National Registration Services
Imperial House
77 Victoria Street
Grimsby
DN31 1 DB
If you want to change the composition of a VAT group, you should apply to HMRC straight away. If you don't apply to include an extra member in the VAT group at the right time, you might not be able to obtain a period of retrospection. You must also write to HMRC if you no longer meet the criteria for divisional registration. If you don't, divisional registration may be cancelled and you may be restricted to a single registration.
If you are part of a VAT group and the group is disbanded, the group's registration will be cancelled. If you still need to be registered for VAT, you will need to re-register.
You must complete forms VAT 51 and Vat 50 to notify HMRC when you:
You will need to complete form VAT 56 if you change the representative member of a VAT group. And if the representative member is not already a group member, you will also need to complete forms VAT 50 and VAT 51. You can't notify HMRC of changes to a VAT group by telephone or by email.
Send the completed form(s) to:
HM Revenue & Customs
VAT Registration Service
Imperial House
77 Victoria Street
Grimsby
DN31 1DB
Fax: 01472 247388
Group, division or joint venture VAT registration
Go to form VAT 50 Application for VAT Group Treatment
Go to form VAT 51 Application of VAT group treatment - company details
Go to form VAT 56 Application to change the Representative Member of a VAT group
If you close or sell your business, you have to cancel your VAT registration. You can't cancel your VAT registration by telephone or by email, you must complete form VAT 7 and send it to:
HM Revenue & Customs
VAT Registration Service
Imperial House
77 Victoria Street
Grimsby
DN31 1DB
Go to form VAT 7 Application to Cancel Your VAT Registration
Read our guide on closing or selling your business and your VAT registration
If you are not based in the UK and you need to tell HMRC about a change, or you have moved out of the UK, you can use an agent or tax representative, or write to:
HM Revenue & Customs
Non Established Taxable Persons Unit (NETPU)
Ruby House
8 Ruby Place
Aberdeen
AB10 1ZP
Find out how to authorise someone to act as your VAT agent
Using the VAT online services you can ask for a change to be made to the following details of your VAT registration:
The service works as follows:
Please note that HMRC can't change your Direct Debit Instruction if you notify them of changes to your bank details online. You will have to issue a new Direct Debit Instruction by contacting your bank.
Change your VAT registration details online
