VAT Flat Rate Scheme calculator
Work out what you would pay HMRC under the Flat Rate Scheme, including the limited cost business rate and the discount for a first year of registration.
Your details
Enter your VAT-inclusive turnover for the period.
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How the Flat Rate Scheme works
You still charge customers VAT in the normal way, but you pay HMRC a single percentage of your VAT-inclusive turnover instead of working out the VAT on every sale and every purchase. In exchange you generally cannot reclaim VAT on what you buy. There is a discount of one percentage point in your first year of registration.
The limited cost business test
You are a limited cost business if the goods you buy cost less than either two per cent of turnover, or one thousand pounds a year where your costs exceed two per cent. A limited cost business pays sixteen and a half per cent whatever its trade. The test looks at goods rather than services, so a consultant who spends heavily on subcontractors and software but buys almost nothing physical will usually fall into it.
Worked example
A photographer bills one thousand pounds and adds VAT of two hundred, making one thousand two hundred. The flat rate for photography is eleven per cent, so the payment to HMRC is one hundred and thirty-two pounds.
Flat rates by business type
| Business type | Flat rate |
|---|---|
| Accountancy or book-keeping | 14.5% |
| Advertising | 11.0% |
| Agricultural services | 11.0% |
| Any other activity not listed elsewhere | 12.0% |
| Architect, civil and structural engineer or surveyor | 14.5% |
| Boarding or care of animals | 12.0% |
| Business services not listed elsewhere | 12.0% |
| Catering services including restaurants and takeaways | 12.5% |
| Computer and IT consultancy or data processing | 14.5% |
| Computer repair services | 10.5% |
| Entertainment or journalism | 12.5% |
| Estate agency or property management services | 12.0% |
| Farming or agriculture not listed elsewhere | 6.5% |
| Film, radio, television or video production | 13.0% |
| Financial services | 13.5% |
| Forestry or fishing | 10.5% |
| General building or construction services | 9.5% |
| Hairdressing or other beauty treatment services | 13.0% |
| Hiring or renting goods | 9.5% |
| Hotel or accommodation | 10.5% |
| Investigation or security | 12.0% |
| Labour-only building or construction services | 14.5% |
| Laundry or dry-cleaning services | 12.0% |
| Lawyer or legal services | 14.5% |
| Library, archive, museum or other cultural activity | 9.5% |
| Management consultancy | 14.0% |
| Manufacturing fabricated metal products | 10.5% |
| Manufacturing food | 9.0% |
| Manufacturing not listed elsewhere | 9.5% |
| Manufacturing yarn, textiles or clothing | 9.0% |
| Membership organisation | 8.0% |
| Mining or quarrying | 10.0% |
| Packaging | 9.0% |
| Photography | 11.0% |
| Post offices | 5.0% |
| Printing | 8.5% |
| Publishing | 11.0% |
| Pubs | 6.5% |
| Real estate activity not listed elsewhere | 14.0% |
| Repairing personal or household goods | 10.0% |
| Repairing vehicles | 8.5% |
| Retailing food, confectionery, tobacco, newspapers or children's clothing | 4.0% |
| Retailing pharmaceuticals, medical goods, cosmetics or toiletries | 8.0% |
| Retailing not listed elsewhere | 7.5% |
| Retailing vehicles or fuel | 6.5% |
| Secretarial services | 13.0% |
| Social work | 11.0% |
| Sport or recreation | 8.5% |
| Transport or storage, including couriers, freight, removals and taxis | 10.0% |
| Travel agency | 10.5% |
| Veterinary medicine | 11.0% |
| Wholesaling agricultural products | 8.0% |
| Wholesaling food | 7.5% |
| Wholesaling not listed elsewhere | 8.5% |
Catering, hotel and accommodation, and pub rates were temporarily reduced between 15th July 2020 and 31st March 2022; the rates above are those applying since 1st April 2022. Labour-only building or construction services means building services where the materials supplied are worth less than ten per cent of the turnover for those services.