How to register for VAT in the UK

Register online through HMRC's VAT registration service once your VAT-taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in any rolling 12 months. Apply within 30 days of the end of the month you went over. VAT applies to your sales from your effective date of registration, even if your VAT number hasn't arrived yet.

Written by Joseph Cox FCCA, Founder and Managing Partner. Last checked: 6 November 2026.

This guide covers what to gather, the application itself, what to do while you wait and once the number comes.

Do you need to register yet?

Check your turnover at the end of every month. Add up the last 12 months of VAT-taxable sales, whatever your accounting year or tax year. Once that total goes over £90,000, you must register.

A second test looks forward. If you expect sales in the next 30 days alone to go over £90,000, you must register by the end of those 30 days, and registration starts from the day you realised.

Turnover is the full price your customers pay, before marketplace fees, fulfilment fees and ad spend come off. Payouts from Amazon or eBay are lower than that, so measuring against them leaves sellers registering late. Sales on every channel count together, and zero-rated sales such as books and children's clothes count too.

Samantha sells on eBay and through her own Shopify store. Her combined sales for the 12 months to 31 March come to £91,200. She has until 30 April to tell HMRC, and she is VAT registered from 1 May.

At the moment, services bought from overseas suppliers under the reverse charge also count towards the £90,000. These are business services, such as software or advertising, where the supplier charges no UK VAT. From 1 April 2027, those suppliers will charge UK VAT to businesses that aren't registered, so the services stop counting (subject to the Finance Bill).

A business based outside the UK has no threshold and registers from its first UK sale. If you dropship from overseas suppliers, parcels worth £135 or less follow their own rules, set out in VAT for dropshippers. For the full picture, including voluntary registration and how the threshold works when you go limited, see do you need to register for VAT? in our ecommerce VAT guide.

What you need before you start

Gather these before you open the application. HMRC lets you save and come back, but having everything ready saves a second sitting.

A limited company needs:

• Company registration number
• Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) for Corporation Tax
• Business bank account details
• Turnover for the last 12 months and an estimate of VAT-taxable turnover for the next 12
• Details of the company's Corporation Tax and PAYE, and the director's Self Assessment if they file one

A sole trader needs much the same, plus:

• National Insurance number
• An identity document such as a passport or driving licence
• Self Assessment UTR, if you have one
• A recent Self Assessment return, payslips or a P60, which HMRC uses to check your identity

Use the turnover figure from your sales reports, not your payouts. On Amazon, Etsy or TikTok Shop, that means the order totals customers paid, before the platform takes its fees.

How to register for VAT online, step by step

Registration is online for almost every business. Your accountant can also apply for you as your agent and deal with HMRC's letters.

HMRC lets you choose your VAT quarters when you apply, so take the option and line them up with your financial year end. Your last return of the year then closes on the same day as your accounts, and the year-end figures and the VAT agree without any splitting of quarters.

Joseph Cox FCCAManaging Partner, Ecommerce Accountants

HMRC offers three quarterly patterns:

For more on what HMRC asks and why, see how to register for VAT in our ecommerce VAT guide.

When you register by post instead

Paper form VAT1 is now only for a short list of cases, such as local councils, insolvency practitioners and some VAT groups. For online sellers, one case is worth knowing about: a sales spike you don't expect to last.

If you went over £90,000 in the last 12 months but can show your sales will stay under the £88,000 deregistration threshold in the next 12, you can ask HMRC for an exception. A product that sold unusually well for a few months and has since settled back is one example. Phone HMRC's VAT helpline and ask for forms VAT1 and VAT5EXC, then return both. HMRC replies within 40 working days.

If HMRC refuses, it registers you from the date you should have been registered, so VAT is due on sales from then. Keep checking your turnover each month while you wait, and set the VAT aside in case.

Sellers whose goods are mostly zero-rated can also ask not to register. It rarely pays, because registering lets them reclaim VAT on their costs while charging none on sales.

How long it takes to get a VAT number

Allow about four weeks for a straightforward application. HMRC's reply time checker gave 4 December 2026 for an application sent on 6 November, and HMRC was then working on applications received on 5 October. The checker updates as HMRC's queue moves, so look at it on the day you apply.

Online sellers can wait much longer if HMRC sends a follow-up questionnaire. Not every application gets one, and some go through without it. When one does arrive, the number only comes once HMRC has been through the answers. In two of our clients' registrations this year, the questionnaire arrived three and four weeks after applying. Both were returned within two weeks, and HMRC approved the registrations eight and nine weeks after that: about three months from start to finish.

Which questionnaire you get depends on what the business does. A seller of goods gets a goods questionnaire. A business that also sells services gets a goods and services version, with extra questions on who its customers are and where they belong. The goods questions ask:

• what goods you sell
• who imports them, and whose name is on the import VAT statement (the C79 or monthly import statement)
• whether you buy or hold stock in the UK, including in an Amazon fulfilment centre
• where the goods are when dispatch to your customer begins, and which country if not the UK
• whether imported goods are valued below £135

HMRC doesn't confirm it has received your answers. Keep a copy and a note of the date you sent them.

While you wait for your VAT number

VAT is due on your sales from your effective date, not from the day the number arrives. For weeks, or months if HMRC sends a questionnaire, you'll owe VAT on sales without being able to show it.

• Price for the 20%. Every sale from the effective date includes VAT you'll pay HMRC, whether or not you charged it. On a £60 sale, that's £10 (one-sixth of the price). Raise prices if your margin can't absorb it.
• Leave VAT off your invoices. You can't show VAT or a VAT number until HMRC gives you one. Once it arrives, send business customers replacement invoices that show the VAT, so they can reclaim it.
• Keep VAT records from the effective date. Your first return covers sales and costs from that date, so keep receipts for stock, fees and advertising from then on.
• Set the money aside. The VAT on those weeks of sales goes on your first return.

Samantha is registered from 1 May and her number arrives in early June. Her May sales on eBay and Shopify all carry VAT she owes, so she put her prices up on 1 May rather than waiting. When the number came, she turned on VAT in her Shopify settings and added the number to her eBay account.

When your VAT number arrives

HMRC posts a letter with your 9-digit VAT number, your effective date of registration and when your first return and payment are due. Your VAT certificate is also in your business tax account online, and how to view your VAT certificate online shows where to find it.

Registration also signs you up for Making Tax Digital for VAT, so your returns go through compatible software from the first one. If you use Xero, set up the VAT return there before your first period ends.

Three things to do in the first week:

1. Sign in to your business tax account and add VAT, so you can see returns and payments.
2. Check the effective date on the letter matches the one you applied for. Tell HMRC straight away if it doesn't.
3. Add the number to your invoice template and to the accounts below.

Add your VAT number to marketplaces and overseas providers

Add the number to each selling account as soon as it arrives. Until you do, platforms treat you as an unregistered seller, and some charge you VAT they would leave off for a registered business.

• Amazon. Add it in Seller Central's tax settings. Amazon needs it before it can issue VAT invoices to business buyers for you. Amazon's EU advertising entities charge that country's VAT until they have your UK number, then switch to the reverse charge. More on VAT for Amazon sellers and our Amazon accountants page.
• eBay. Add it on eBay's VAT number page in your account. eBay then shows it on your listings, and you enter prices with the VAT rate for each item. See our eBay accountants page.
• Etsy. Add it under Shop Manager, then Finances, then VAT ID. Without it, Etsy charges UK VAT on its fees, which you can't reclaim, so ask Etsy to correct the invoice. With it, Etsy stops charging VAT and the reverse charge applies. See our Etsy accountants page.
• Shopify. Add it in your store's tax settings, so Shopify shows VAT on receipts and stops charging VAT on its subscription. Apps billed separately may still charge UK VAT, so check each app's invoice.

Do the same with overseas software and service providers such as Klaviyo and Adobe. Many charge 20% UK VAT to any customer without a VAT number, treating them as a consumer. With a valid number they stop, and the reverse charge applies instead: you record the VAT on your return and reclaim the same amount on that return, so nothing changes hands.

Reclaim VAT you paid before you registered

Your first VAT return can reclaim VAT on some costs from before your effective date.

• Stock and other goods bought in the four years before your effective date, if you still had them on that date and use them in the business.
• Services bought in the six months before your effective date, such as a web designer, photography or a warehouse set-up fee.

Claim it on your first return: HMRC's rules say it belongs there. Keep the VAT invoices, and a stock record showing what you bought, sold and still held on the effective date.

Frequently asked questions

Get help with your VAT registration

We register online sellers for VAT, work out the effective date and the pre-registration claim, and file the returns that follow. See our UK VAT services.

To get your registration and first return right, book a discovery call.

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