What records does HMRC want for a VAT check?

When HMRC opens a VAT check, it wants evidence that supports the figures on your return: proof you made the sales and incurred the costs you've declared, and that the VAT treatment applied to each was correct.

The exact list depends on what's under review. A repayment check tends to focus on purchase invoices and evidence the input tax is genuine; a general compliance check looks more broadly across sales, purchases and your VAT account for the period.

Digital record-keeping under Making Tax Digital means most of this evidence should already sit in your accounting software, which makes producing it for HMRC considerably easier if your bookkeeping is up to date.

Schedule 11 VATA 1994 requires VAT-registered businesses to keep records and accounts as HMRC may reasonably specify, sufficient to support the figures on each return.

Schedule 36 Finance Act 2008 gives HMRC the power to formally request specific documents or information where reasonably required to check a tax position, backed by penalties for non-compliance if you ignore a formal notice.

Records generally need to be retained for six years, reflecting the assessment time limits that apply to careless and standard VAT errors, so evidence should still exist for anything HMRC is likely to ask about.

Good record-keeping isn't just a compliance obligation, it's your main defence in a VAT check. Being able to produce a clean, matching set of invoices and bank evidence quickly is what closes checks fast.

If records are incomplete, for example missing invoices for input tax claims, HMRC can disallow the VAT you've reclaimed rather than accept your word for it. The burden of proof sits with you, not HMRC.

Directors using cloud accounting software should still keep original invoices, not just the summary entries, because HMRC can ask to see the underlying document behind any transaction.

There's no fee for providing records, but gathering scattered paperwork after the fact, especially older invoices, can be time-consuming and stressful under a deadline.

Where records are missing and input tax gets disallowed, the cost is the VAT itself plus interest, and potentially a penalty if HMRC concludes the record-keeping failure was careless.

Growth plan clients get free tax investigation insurance included, which can cover professional costs of pulling together a record request under time pressure. See /fees for details.

Don't rely on bank statements alone as evidence of a purchase; HMRC generally wants the invoice showing the VAT charged, not just proof money left your account.

Don't discard paper invoices once they're logged in your accounting software; the digital entry is a summary, not a substitute for the original document if HMRC asks.

Don't wait until a check starts to organise your filing system. Reconciling records as you go each quarter makes any future request far less stressful.

The general rule is to retain VAT records for six years, covering the standard assessment window for careless errors and giving a comfortable margin for most checks.

If HMRC suspects deliberate under-declaration, its assessment powers can reach back much further, so businesses with any history of irregularities should keep records for longer where practical.

Digital records kept under Making Tax Digital rules should be preserved in a format HMRC can access, not just summarised on paper, since it may ask to see the digital audit trail behind a return.