Readers' forum : No VAT registration

My client is a small limited company which appears to have been incorporated by one of the shareholder directors on a whim. Having been operating for less than a year I have suggested that it file just the one set of accounts and ask to be struck off. However I have noticed that although the company is not VAT-registered it has charged VAT on its invoices but shown no VAT number. As far as I know the customers have not questioned this and I assume that the input tax has somehow been claimed.

I have advised the company to issue credit notes for the VAT and cheques for those amounts where it has been paid. It will then be up to the customers to reverse their VAT input claims. An alternative would have been for the company to have paid ‘VAT’ to HMRC. To...