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Does the VAT domestic reverse charge apply to my construction work?

By James Fitzpatrick · Fitzpatrick Co · Brighton & Hove · 3 min read

If you're VAT-registered and supplying construction services to another VAT-registered contractor (rather than to the end customer, like a homeowner or a business that isn't going to onward-supply the work), then yes — since March 2021, you don't charge VAT on that invoice at all; instead your customer accounts for it directly to HMRC under the domestic reverse charge.

This is one of the most commonly got-wrong areas in construction VAT, because the correct treatment depends on who's buying the work and what they're doing with it, not just what the job is — the same job invoiced to a main contractor versus invoiced to the property's owner-occupier can have a completely different VAT treatment. Getting it wrong in either direction causes real problems: charging VAT when you shouldn't have means your customer can't reclaim it as expected, and not charging it when you should have can leave you exposed if HMRC reviews it. If you're not confident which of your invoices should carry the reverse charge and which shouldn't, that's worth checking specifically rather than applying one rule to everything you invoice.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Does the VAT domestic reverse charge apply to my construction work?
If you're VAT-registered and supplying construction services to another VAT-registered contractor (rather than to the end customer, like a homeowner or a business that isn't going to onward-supply the work), then yes — since March 2021, you don't charge VAT on that invoice at all; instead your customer accounts for it directly to HMRC under the domestic reverse charge.

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