What a free VAT and practice review covers
- Your position against the VATHLT2190 three-stage test — whether the practice qualifies to apportion at all, and on what basis
- How the spectacle price is currently split between standard-rated goods and exempt dispensing, and whether that split is defensible
- Your GOS income against the published fee for your nation, including any backdated determination you may not have picked up
- Optical voucher income and how it is being recorded
- Whether your locum arrangements are what you think they are
What to have to hand
Nothing at all, if you would rather just talk. If you want the review to be concrete, the most useful things are your last VAT return with its working, a typical spectacle sale broken down, your last set of accounts, and a note of who carries out the dispensing and under whose supervision.
What we will be able to tell you on the first call
Whether your practice qualifies to apportion at all, from the VATHLT2190 questions — that is a short conversation with a clear answer. Whether you are on separately disclosed charges or apportionment, and whether the route you are on is the one that suits how you actually sell. Roughly what the exempt dispensing element is worth against your current treatment. And what your GOS receipts should look like in date terms for your own area, which is not the same answer as for the practice down the road in a different ICB.
What we will not do on a first call is tell you a number to put on a return. Apportionment has to be evidenced from your own cost structure, and a figure produced from a five-minute conversation is not evidence.
If you are switching from another accountant
It is one letter of engagement from you. We then write for professional clearance and the records, and pick the work up from there. Nothing needs to happen at a year end or a quarter end — a mid-period switch is normal and does not create extra work for you.
The one thing worth doing before you move is asking your current accountant what basis your VAT apportionment is on and when it was last recalculated. If the answer takes more than a moment to produce, that is itself informative, and it is much easier to ask while you are still a client.
If you would rather not use the form
Email is fine, and so is WhatsApp — the link is in the header of every page. Please do not send anything containing patient identifiable information by any route. We work from financial records, and we do not need clinical data to answer any of the questions above.