VAT reclaim and HMRC

Timing Completion Around Your VAT Quarter

PropertyVAT Team · Updated 21 October 2026 · 3 min read

This is the cheapest optimisation available on a VAT-affected purchase, and it is routinely ignored because it sits between the solicitor's job and the accountant's job.

The mechanism

You reclaim the VAT on your return for the period in which you completed. You cannot file that return until the period ends.

So the reclaim clock has two parts, and the first is entirely determined by your completion date:

1. Completion to the end of your VAT quarter — anywhere from zero to three months
2. Filing, then HMRC processing — typically around a month for a routine claim

The second part is largely fixed. The first is a choice.

What it looks like in practice

Take a company with VAT quarters ending March, June, September and December.

Two weeks apart on the calendar. Roughly three months apart on the refund.

On £300,000 of VAT funded at around 0.03% per day, that difference is in the region of £8,000 of additional interest — for a decision that cost nothing to make, if anyone had made it.

When you can use this

You usually can:

• Private treaty purchases where the completion date is negotiable
• Deals where you are the one holding things up anyway
• Portfolio acquisitions being completed in tranches

You usually cannot:

• Auction purchases, where the completion window is fixed by the contract
• Chains, or deals with a contractual long-stop date
• Anything where delay risks the deal

The rule is simple: never put a transaction at risk to save financing cost. If the date is movable, move it. If it is not, build the longer reclaim into your funding term instead.

The other lever: return frequency

Businesses in a regular repayment position can apply to file monthly rather than quarterly. For a property investor making repeated VAT-affected acquisitions, that structurally shortens every reclaim cycle rather than optimising one deal at a time.

It also means more frequent filing and more administration, so it is a conversation for your accountant rather than an automatic win.

What to do

1. Find out when your VAT quarter ends. Before you agree a completion date, not after.
2. If the date is flexible, aim for shortly before quarter end rather than shortly after.
3. If it is fixed, size the facility for the real term. A deal completing just after a quarter end needs a longer facility, and pretending otherwise just means extending later at worse terms.
4. For repeat buyers, ask about monthly returns.
5. Have the evidence pack ready to file on day one of the new period. The timing advantage evaporates if the return then sits unfiled for three weeks.

Why it gets missed

Because nobody owns it. The solicitor manages the completion date but has no reason to think about VAT periods. The accountant manages VAT periods but is often told the completion date rather than asked about it.

It takes one question, early: when does our VAT quarter end, and can we complete before it?

This guide is general information, not tax advice. Return periods and repayment timing depend on your circumstances — confirm with your accountant.