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The United Kingdom’s tax system is administered by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Following Brexit, the UK operates its own VAT system independently of the EU VAT Directive. VAT applies at standard, reduced, and zero rates. Zero-rated supplies include food, children’s clothing, books, and newspapers. Some supplies are exempt from VAT, including financial services, education, and healthcare. Companies are identified by their VAT Registration Number (VRN) in the format GB followed by 9 digits, and optionally by their Company Registration Number (CRN) from Companies House. Northern Ireland (country code XI) has special arrangements for goods under the Windsor Framework, remaining aligned with EU VAT rules for goods while following UK rules for services. Credit notes are supported for invoice corrections.

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Base Details

KeyValue
Tax Country CodeGB
CurrencyGBP
Base Time ZoneEurope/London

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Tax Categories

CodeNameTitle
VATVATValue Added Tax

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VAT Rates

RateKeysNamePercentsDescription
generalstandardGeneral Rate20.0%
reducedstandardReduced Rate5.0%

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Correction Definitions

Auto-generation of corrective invoices or credit and debit notes is supported.

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Invoice Types

The types of invoices that can be created with a preceding definition:
  • credit-note

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Scenarios

Scenarios attach notes and extensions to a document when its filters match. Read more about scenarios.
TagsCategoriesOutput
reverse-chargeVAT{
  “note”: {
    “cat”: “VAT”,
    “key”: “reverse-charge”,
    “text”: “Reverse charge: Customer to account for VAT to the relevant tax authority.”
  }
}

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Validation Rules

Validation rules check each struct against a set of assertions and report any failures with a unique code and message. Read more about validation.
FieldTestValidation Code / Message
code
  • Code in [GB]
  • Matches ^(\d|\d|GD\d|HA\d)$
GOBL-GB-TAX-IDENTITY-01
Invalid UK VAT identity format
code
  • Code in [GB]
  • Not-zeros
GOBL-GB-TAX-IDENTITY-02
All-zero UK VAT identity codes are not allowed
code
  • Code in [GB]
  • Checksum
GOBL-GB-TAX-IDENTITY-03
UK VAT identity checksum mismatch