Businesses can close a VAT registration for two main reasons. For example, the business has stopped making taxable supplies or a voluntary deregistration can be made by businesses that does not expect its taxable turnover to exceed the deregistration limit. The current deregistration limit is £83,000.

A business that deregisters will be required to submit a final VAT Return for the period up to and including the VAT deregistration date.

Regardless of the reason for deregistration, businesses remain eligible to reclaim input tax relating to the time when the business was VAT registered after the final VAT return has been submitted. Such a claim is made using form VAT 427.

The form can be used to:

• reclaim VAT paid (input tax) on purchases when you were VAT registered
• reclaim VAT paid (input tax) on certain services you bought after you cancelled your VAT registration
• get relief on the VAT you paid to HMRC (output tax) on bad debts that you identified after you cancelled your VAT registration.