How Outsourcing VAT Return UK Services Can Boost the Efficiency of Your Accounting Practice
Among the multiple important responsibilities handled by UK accounting practices is handling VAT for their clients through VAT accounting. Judging by the name, beginners may wonder if it is a complex responsibility, but that’s not the case. Still, accounting practices cannot discount the importance of outsourced VAT accounting services, especially when dealing with complex cases. Having professional UK-based outsourced VAT accounting services by your side is like shielding your practice from all the obstacles that can derail your VAT services for your clients. With them handling the complex tasks, you will be spared with time and resources that can be invested in practice expansion and service upgradation.
But before we understand outsourced VAT return UK services, let’s get a brief overview of VAT, which is tax levied on goods and services at each level of production or distribution. In the UK, your clients will have to collect the VAT on behalf of the government. No business or service is exempted from UK VAT except for a select few.
Since you are running an accounting practice, you must know the importance of VAT for your clients. With proper VAT accounting from your side, they can maintain full compliance with the HMRC, thus avoiding penalties and maintaining the good books of tax authorities. However, handling UK VAT in-house is easier said than done because of increased complexities and frequent regulatory changes, making it a little difficult to keep tabs on it.
To address these challenges, many accounting practices are choosing to use the outsourced VAT services of professional accounting service providers. But first, let’s understand the challenges faced by accounting practices while doing in-house VAT.
Challenges While Conducting VAT Accounting In-House
In the past handling of VAT for your clients was the turf of accounting practices. Since accounting practices like yours have a good command over UK VAT, multiple businesses have started handing over this responsibility to practices to save time and resources.
However, this has given rise to a situation, i.e., an increased workload of complex VAT tasks on your teams, and that’s not all. There are other set of challenges such as:
Increasingly Complex VAT Regulations
Every accounting practice and business is aware of the web of UK VAT regulations. Apart from being complex, these regulations are ever-changing, making it important for you to keep a constant eye on the updates. Due to the complex nature of the VAT regulations, the process has become increasingly taxing for your accounting teams.
Time-Consuming Process
Under VAT accounting, you will be required to maintain records and make timely submissions for your clients. Furthermore, you will also have to deal with the UK VAT regulations which are complex in nature and strictly enforced by regulators. All this leads to significant daily investment in hours, which could have been invested in other core accounting activities. Such high consumption of time by a single activity will reduce the efficiency of your accounting practice, thus reducing your client’s confidence in your accounting services.
Increased Risk of Penalties and Errors
One of the biggest challenges of doing VAT accounting in-house is the risk of making errors. An error in VAT accounting, even if committed unintentionally, will lead to serious consequences for your practice and your client, i.e., high penalties and interest for your client. Your client cannot afford such mistakes, leading to a loss of reputation and business for your practice.
Under VAT accounting comes important tasks such as VAT registration, preparation and submission of VAT returns, VAT audits, and advisory services. The above-mentioned challenges cause considerable hinderance in conducting these VAT tasks. Hence, to tackle these challenges, you can follow the Step-by-Step Guide on How to Complete VAT Return Successfully or choose the option of Outsourced VAT Return UK Services. For now, let’s understand Outsourced VAT Return UK Services in depth.
What is Outsourced VAT Return UK Services
Under the outsourced VAT return UK services, accounting practices based in the UK can delegate their client’s VAT return responsibility to an outsourced VAT services service provider. Apart from handling VAT returns, these service providers will also handle VAT registration, VAT audits, and advisory services on your behalf.
You must have noticed the challenges faced by your accounting practice when it comes to following the VAT regulations set by HMRC, and you are not alone. These challenges have made it necessary for your competitors to use outsourced VAT return UK services.
Having outsourced VAT return UK services by your side is very important because they act as a strong backup to handle complicated VAT return cases. These services will help streamline your VAT return processes and increase your efficiency and productivity. Let’s understand the advantages of outsourced VAT return UK services.
Advantages of Outsourced VAT Return UK Services
Your competitors increasingly prefer to get their client VAT returns done through outsourced VAT return UK services from outsourced accounting service providers. The reason for this popularity is the advantages offered, which are:
Savings in Cost
One of the biggest advantages of outsourced VAT return UK services is the cost factor. Rising complexity in VAT regulations and increased client expectations have increased the requirement for more helping hands. Without outsourced VAT return services, you will have no other option but to recruit more in-house staff. With more recruitment comes increased associated expenses like salaries, training, benefits, and office infrastructure costs, leading to unnecessary burdens on your budget.
Access to Expertise
We believe your in-house team is the best when it comes to handling VAT returns. However, there will be blind spots, such as keeping a tab on VAT regulations updates made by HMRC on a daily basis. Also, handling the complexity of VAT returns is becoming a tough question due to high time consumption. Overcome these challenges by utilizing outsourced VAT return UK services from experienced external experts. Their expertise will help you in maintaining accuracy and reduce the chances of errors and penalties.
Time Efficiency
You will definitely agree that the UK VAT return process is becoming increasingly complex. HMRC enforces it strictly, leaving no room for cutting corners. While we believe in following the regulations set by regulators fully, this has created a new problem: increased time consumption. Your in-house team is too occupied with VAT returns to focus on value-added and strategic tasks.
By delegating the responsibility of VAT returns to an outsourced accounting service provider, you are rescuing your in-house team from getting bogged down in VAT paperwork, and you can redirect them to other important tasks.
Access to the Latest Technology and Tools
The VAT return process is cumbersome but can streamlined with the help of the latest technologies and tools. However, getting and incorporating these tools into your system is a significant investment, and many accounting practices will back out. With outsourced VAT services, you gain access to the latest tools and technologies used by providers. The result of these tools is more efficient and accurate VAT return services.
Cost Comparison Between In-House and Outsourced VAT Return UK Services
Aspect | In-House | Outsourced |
Staff Costs | High due to salaries and benefits | Low due to payment of service fee only |
Training | Recurring at regular intervals | Included in the service fee |
Advanced Tools | Expensive to buy and integrate with the internal system | Offered by the outsourced VAT service provider |
Error And Penalty Costs | Higher risk due to in-house handling that lacks experience | Lower risk due to experts handling it |
Time to Invest | Huge time investment is required | Bare minimum |
Conclusion
The decision to outsource your VAT return task to a professional outsourcing VAT return UK service will be one of the most strategic decisions you will ever make, and it will have a long-lasting impact on your accounting practice. This decision will not only bring monetary and quality benefits to your accounting practice but will also reduce the workload of your in-house accounting team, thus allowing them to focus on other important accounting tasks and improve their work-life balance.
This blog highlights the importance of outsourcing VAT returns to boost your practice’s efficiency. You must select a highly professional and reputed outsourced accounting service provider. Of course, you will find multiple accounting service providers in the United Kingdom offering quality services. But if you are looking for a proactive and expert accounting service provider, Corient UK must be your first choice.
We are a professional and experienced outsourced accounting service provider based in Coventry, United Kingdom. We expertly handle VAT return tasks through our outsourced VAT services, and offer much more beyond that. Bookkeeping, year-end, payroll, audit, and corporation tax services to cover all your accounting needs. Our services have streamlined accounting processes and reduced the workload for many practices’ in-house teams. We can have the same impact on you. Just state your requirements or doubts on our website contact form, and our executive will contact you.
We are looking forward to a long-term and fruitful partnership.