VAT · 2026/27 tax year
VAT threshold checker UK 2026/27
Check your rolling 12-month turnover against the £90,000 VAT registration threshold and see when you must register with HMRC.
94.4% of threshold
You are under the threshold
Deregistration: If you are already VAT registered, you can only deregister once your taxable turnover falls below £88,000.
Understanding your results
Rolling twelve-month turnover is a continuous test, not a 5 April snapshot. Many businesses discover too late that a strong winter pushed them over £90,000 even when the tax year average looked safe. Check monthly once turnover accelerates; the 30-day registration window after the end of the month you breach is unforgiving.
Taxable turnover includes standard, reduced, and zero-rated supplies — “exempt” is different from “zero-rated,” and exempt income generally does not count toward the threshold. If you sell a mix, misclassification is a common source of silent drift. When in doubt, HMRC’s VAT notices or an accountant’s mapping beats guesswork.
Voluntary registration below the threshold can recover input VAT on setup costs but forces you to charge VAT to customers who cannot reclaim it — bad for consumer-facing trades, fine for B2B. Use this threshold tool as a tripwire, then run a commercial strategy pass before ticking “register” in the government gateway.
Late registration risks HMRC backdating VAT from when you should have charged it, while you cannot always recover input tax from earlier periods. The cost of delay is asymmetric: register slightly early and reclaim setup VAT; register late and fund output VAT you never collected from customers.
International supplies, marketplace sales, and digital services can all complicate the simple turnover figure typed here. Treat green “under threshold” outputs as a starting signal, not clearance, if your business model crosses borders or platforms.
Disclaimer: This is a guidance estimate based on the 2026/27 tax year. It is not personal tax advice — consult an accountant or HMRC for your specific circumstances.
About this calculator
You must register for VAT once your VAT-taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling 12-month period. That is not a calendar year — it is the total over the most recent 12 months at any given moment. Many sole traders miss this because they only check on 5 April.
If you go over the threshold, you have 30 days from the end of the month in which you crossed it to register with HMRC. You then start charging VAT from the first of the second month after that. Late registration means HMRC will still want the VAT you should have collected, plus possible penalties.
There is also a separate deregistration threshold of £88,000. If your rolling turnover drops below that, you can choose to deregister. This is useful if your business is shrinking or shifting away from VAT-able supplies.
This calculator is a quick check. Enter your rolling 12-month turnover and we will tell you how much headroom you have, how close you are to the threshold, and what to do next. It does not include reverse charge transactions or imports of services from abroad — speak to an accountant if those apply to you.