Value Added Tax Act 1994 Schedule 9ZA paragraphs 38–39

Liability to be registered

Section 38–39 sets out when a person becomes liable to register for VAT based on the value of their relevant acquisitions, and the circumstances in which that liability ceases.

• A person who is not already registered and not required to register under other provisions must register at the end of any month if their relevant acquisitions since 1 January of that year exceed £85,000, or at any time if acquisitions in the next 30 days are reasonably expected to exceed £85,000.
• When calculating the value of relevant acquisitions, any VAT charged by the supplier under the law of an EU member state is excluded, and acquisitions caught by the fiscal warehousing rules in Schedule 9ZB paragraph 19(6) are also disregarded.
• A person who would have become liable to register but avoided it only because of a registration that is later cancelled is treated as having been liable from the point they would originally have become so.
• A person ceases to be liable to register only if their relevant acquisitions in the calendar year ending on the previous 31 December did not exceed £85,000, HMRC are satisfied that acquisitions in the immediately following year will not exceed £85,000, and there are no reasonable grounds to believe acquisitions in the next 30 days will exceed £85,000.