»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp time limits for when a person must notify his liability for registration are contained in the VAT Act 1994, Schedule 1, paragraphs 5 and 6. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp general rule is that a person has 30 days in which to notify, but the starting date for those 30 days will vary according to what triggered his liability to register.

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp backward look

VAT Act 1994, Schedule 1, paragraph 5 covers the ‘backward look� and provides that a person shall notify his liability to register within 30 days of the end of the month the liability arose.

Example

On 22 April, the value of a trader’s suppliers in the past 12 months exceeds the registration threshold.

Timeline	Date
Registration threshold exceeded	22 April
Trader becomes liable to be registered	30 April
Trader must notify liability by	30 May
EDR will be (see section 8)	1 June

You can see that there is a period of time between being liable to be VAT registered and the EDR provided by law. During this period, the person is not a taxable person within the meaning of the VAT Act 1994, section 3.

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp forward look

VAT Act 1994, Schedule 1, paragraph 6, which covers the ‘forward look�, provides that a person must notify his liability to register within 30 days of the day the liability arose.

Example

On 22 April, a trader expects that the value of his supplies in the next 30 days alone will exceed the registration threshold.

Timeline	Date
Trader forms the expectation	22 April
Trader becomes liable to be registered	22 April
Trader must notify liability by	22 May
EDR will be	22 April

Guidance on calculating the effective date of registration can be found in VATREG25000.