Whilst the government originally said the deferral of the next quarter of VAT is automatic, it now says you need to cancel your Direct Debits.

The official statement:

“Customers who normally pay by direct debit should cancel their direct debit with their bank if they are unable to pay. Please do so in sufficient time so that HMRC do not attempt to automatically collect on receipt of your VAT return”.

I want to stress though that everyone is eligible to defer the next quarter of VAT – it is not dependant on if you are ‘unable to pay’.

We suggest you cancel the Direct Debit through your online banking rather than with HMRC directly.

We are keeping a register of the amount of deferred VAT for each of you and setting a reminder for us to remind you to set your Direct Debit’s for VAT when needed.

Please email clients@freshfinancials.com to confirm you have cancelled the direct debit so we can update our register.

Thanks so much and as always any questions please do get in touch – we are expecting more updates for financial aid later today.