Corporate

It has been a real mark of Centurion’s success to see the number and range of corporate businesses based both within the UK or locating into the UK from overseas that contact us in search of VAT support.

Our Engagement with the Corporate Sector

Our corporate client base has expanded geographically as has the mix of businesses seeking our assistance. Clients come to us not just from across the UK but from across Europe and the rest of the world.

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Tej Randeva CEO Transport Broker Group
Centurion VAT Corporate Sector Testimonial, Tej Randeva CEO, Transport Broker Group

Sector VAT Issues

The common theme from our corporate clients is that they are seeking experienced and expert VAT support from advisers they can relate to and trust. Centurion employs only senior level staff with a wealth of VAT knowledge and experience. Our team deal directly with their clients from the start to the end of a project or issue. There are no “junior” VAT team members to whom your care is delegated.

Our corporate client base is diverse as are the range of often complicated VAT issues that our clients seek support upon. Large manufacturing business often have concerns about VAT and their accounting processes including Making VAT Digital (MVD), input tax recovery on costs including evidence, expenses and entertainment, liability and compliance issues on imports and exports, international trade transactions, intercompany recharges and VAT grouping.  Equally we deal with issues from the liability of the supplies the business may make, property projects, corporate restructuring and partial exemption methodologies.

Given our experience, our corporate clients often ask for our assistance in preparing for HMRC VAT inspections and dealing with queries, issues and VAT assessments that arise from them.  For some clients we also offer a VAT management service which involves regular meetings to help ensure the business keeps good VAT compliance, can address any concerns or issues and knows of any relevant VAT opportunities.

How Centurion can help

There is no such thing as a typical VAT enquiry as these examples show:

  • resolving the zero rating of products from a food supplements business with HMRC;
  • securing a six figure VAT refund for a client as a result of an agent or principal discussion with HMRC VAT Policy team;
  • Dealing with an “option to tax” confusion just as a Directors SIP Fund is about to buy a capital asset that they find the vendor wants to charge VAT on - just as a sale contract is to be signed;
  • Challenging HMRC’s visiting VAT inspector over threats of large scale VAT assessment on export evidence issues and assisting in the resolution of any VAT assessment that has been issued by HMRC in relation to export evidence;
  • Checking systems data from SAP to assist in the accurate submission of Intrastat returns;

Whatever the corporate business issue, the award winning Centurion VAT team is here to assist.  With long and invaluable experience in HMRC, Industry and Practice we can help and advise. 

Related Services

Open the tabs below to see how each service is specialised to the corporate sector.

Training

Our VAT support training for the business sector is often delivered through government programmes such as Business Wales and we also offer bespoke VAT training to our corporate clients, tailored to their requirements and issues, including providing VAT courses to non-finance staff as well as to those in finance where the client regards that as beneficial.  

Consultancy

VAT Support delivered is as diverse as the sector itself:

  • property projects – major development schemes as well as buying or selling property assets and interests
  • Liability analysis of supplies made
  • maximization of VAT recovery through partial exemption methods,
  • accounting systems adaptations to ensure VAT compliance as new systems are implemented or existing systems are upgraded
  • protective appeal and retrospective VAT claims
  • Interaction with HMRC in respect of assessment and penalty appeals
  • Promotion Schemes

Where we identify VAT savings that could be accessed by the client we can offer to undertake the project on a contingency fee basis to ensure our clients always secure a financial benefit.

Compliance support

To give flexibility without exposure to high costs our corporate clients can receive ongoing support on managing their VAT compliance needs though our Annual VAT Helpline offering. Linked with our VAT Management service we can visit prior to the submission of the quarterly return and run audit checks on the data produced prior to its submission. This has been particularly valuable in organisations faced with staffing pressures, or periods of management change in delivering consistency on VAT compliance.

VAT Management Programme

With the VAT complexities within the sector and the challenges to access expert VAT support without exposure to burgeoning costs our VAT Management Services offers the financial director/manager that reassurance that VAT expert help is on hand to sense-check any VAT concerns as they arise. Set annual budgets are agreed to deliver a VAT helpline through email and phone contact and this is often combined with periodic meetings on site to look ahead at areas of future VAT impact and is particularly valuable when managing development projects, systems or staff changes.

Meet the Team

Our five strong VAT team specialists have a wide range of experience in key corporate sectors.

Louise Gray
Louise Gray

Director

Email Louise
Andrea Brindley
Andrea Brindley

Director

Email Andrea
Liz Maher
Liz Maher

Director

Email Liz
Julie Rawlinson-Smith
Julie Rawlinson-Smith

Senior Manager

Email Julie
Mike Trotman
Mike Trotman

Senior Manager

Email Mike

Whether in niche areas such as the Tour Operators Margin Scheme or VAT issues for life science businesses to manage when moving into the NHS Health care marketplace or the general VAT issues that all businesses have to face when managing VAT – Bad Debt Relief:, visits from HMRC, Land and Property issues and the like.

GET IN TOUCH

Our Corporate Clients

Case study

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Rising to the Challenge

Often Centurion takes a call after a VAT inspection at the business has raised a query. This occasion was no different as December drew to a close a call was received to resolve by the month end a VAT product liability challenge for a food supplements supplier.

With the challenge of the loss of the zero rating treatment on the product we made sure we went out to the client to see and understand what the product was made of and how it was held out in the marketplace. The skills of our many years in VAT is knowing what questions to ask and where research and case law can clarify and support our clients.
With the internal pressures on HMRC to ensure the "right tax, right time" approach to VAT declarations you need to be clear on the basis of the VAT treatment to ensure that HMRC can see the legal justification for the liability they have been applying.

Being independent of the client we bring the analytical distance from the issue to be able to rationally marshal the VAT facts and re assure HMRC that all is correct. 
Using these skills and our commitment to respond promptly we were able to ensure our client had a smooth resolution to the issues raised.

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Exporting - a recurring VAT challenge

It is little surprise that, with a TAX GAP estimated at c £36bn, HMRC pay close attention to proof that the zero rate treatment applied to exported goods has been correctly applied. Centurion has dealt with a number of large scale VAT assessments in the last two years alone arising from HMRC challenges in the area. A recent case saw two assessments raised on one UK subsidiary of an international manufacturer which would send any finance director into a flat spin. The penalty sum levied amounted to a 6 figure sum alone!

Part of our skill in Centurion comes from our time from within the tax authorities and knowing when to push back robustly on the basis of any assessment raised - especially where a visiting officer may have extrapolated figures as a basis for assessment or made technical assumptions relating to the VAT treatment that should apply - lacking "best judgement" as we would argue.

With prompt action and a robust response we were able to successfully challenge the assessments leaving a very happy FD.

We are part of the Xeinadin Group. The firm of the future!