Readers’ forum: Operation

I have received contradictory advice from two VAT consultants about the way to deal with a liability error made by a client I act for in the medical services sector.

Basically in October 2018 my client charged a patient £12 000 VAT for an expensive operation that should have been exempt. He declared this amount of VAT on his return for the period ended December 2018. He had issued a sales invoice to the patient in October 2018 after the procedure was completed (£60 000 plus VAT).

The first VAT adviser said that my client need only issue a VAT credit note for £12 000 with a current date and reduce the output tax on his next return by this amount. He says that the VAT payment for December 2018 was correct because VAT was still due since the invoice...