VAEC2290 - Types of assessment: Prime assessments introduction: D1090 report

The procedural guidance in this manual only covers the VAT Mainframe and VISION processes. For guidance on the Making Tax Digital and ETMP processes for fully migrated customers, see VAEC0200 and the Making Tax Digital for VAT compliance toolkit.

A D1090 report is issued monthly to local offices listing traders who have paid 3 or more assessments in the last 18 months. Paid assessments of more than £3,500 are excluded from the listing as they are reported individually to local offices on a D1402 (ED 73).

Where additional liabilities are subsequently established following contact with the trader and no return is forthcoming, make and notify the additional assessment promptly.

Remember, additional assessments can be made only where new information not available to HMRC at the time the prime assessment was made, is obtained.

If you simply review the information available at the time (for example, additional details held in the traders folder) and conclude that a greater assessment would have been produced had a different methodology been applied, you must not make an additional assessment for the additional amount.

Exceptionally, in such cases withdrawal of the prime assessment may be considered in order to make a fresh manual prime assessment, subject to time limits.

Note: To justify such action you must be able to demonstrate that the original prime assessment was fundamentally flawed. It is unacceptable to take such action only, because, on a second look, you recognise that a different method of calculation would have resulted in a higher albeit more realistic quantum.

If automatic prime assessments are consistently well below a traders true liability manual interventions must be considered.