HMRC collects record £133 billion in VAT

29 Nov 2019

Data published by HMRC has revealed that the Revenue collected a record £133 billion in VAT during the 2018/19 tax year.

HMRC revealed that total VAT receipts increased by 5.3% in 2018/19 when compared to the previous financial year. According to the data, incorporated businesses accounted for the largest share of the VAT population and annual taxable turnover.

Sole proprietors made up the second largest group in regard to VAT population. This group constituted 17% of VAT traders.

The data also showed that the wholesale and retail sector contributed the largest amount to the total VAT liability. Meanwhile, net home VAT liabilities totalled £28 billion, equating to 27% of the total VAT liability for 2018/19. Net home VAT payments declared by VAT payers amounted to £178 billion in 2018/19.

Additionally, the number of VAT de-registrations decreased in the 2018/19 tax year: HMRC suggested that this may have been caused by the freeze in the VAT de-registration threshold that occurred last year.