VAT and corporation tax is two different taxes administered by HM Revenue and Customs.
Your limited company is legally required to pay corporation tax if your company has made a profit and submit your corporation tax return with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
If your limited company is registered for VAT with HMRC then your company is legally required to charge VAT to your customers and submit VAT returns to HMRC.
VAT
Let say, your company is selling children clothing, the applicable VAT rate is zero percent, your price for a pair of child’s trouser is £20 and the VAT rate for children’s clothing is zero percent. Your customer will pay you £20.
If your are selling website coding services, you would charge a standard VAT rate of 20% to your customers. Say, your project fee is £1000 and your invoice to your customer would be £1000 + 20% VAT and the final invoice price is £1200. The £200 collected is VAT. This amount is called output tax.
The £200 belongs to HMRC. Thus, your company is technically collecting the VAT on behalf of HMRC. Then, you report this output tax collection in your VAT return.
Corporation tax
Your company pay corporation tax on when there is a profit. Let use the website coding services business to illustrate how corporation tax is computed. Let say, your company only have one sale that is £1000 + 20% VAT equal to £1200.
When preparing your company account, you book only £1000 as your sale, not the whole £1200 because the £200 of VAT belongs to HRMC and it is not your earning. Then you deduct any expenses you incurred to deliver the website coding services, say the stationery cost of £150 (excluding VAT). Your profit is £850 (£1000 less £150). The current corporation tax rate is 20%, your corporation tax liability would be £170. Your company would report this tax liability in your corporation tax return called CT600 and submit it to HMRC.
HMRC published the current corporation tax rates.
No double counting of taxes
As you can see from the illustration above, your company would not pay double taxes on your business income. Basically, you collect VAT on behalf of HMRC from your customers. And, your VAT is excluded from your corporation tax computation.
Companies House filings
Besides, delivering your corporation tax return and VAT return to HMRC, your company must also submit your Confirmation Statement and company accounts to Companies House promptly to avoid a late filing penalty.
