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United KingdomGOV.UK

HMRC clarifies deliberate-loss test for 20-year VAT assessments

The guidance requires quantified arrears and sufficient conduct evidence before the one-year clock starts; advisers must also track the ordinary assessment limits.

By Taxxa AI OyPublished 31 July 2026

Tax

HMRC’s guidance on 20-year VAT assessments now expressly includes tax lost through deliberate conduct, alongside dishonest conduct. It identifies two evidential requirements: completing the work needed to quantify the arrears and obtaining sufficient evidence that the loss resulted from that conduct.GOV GOV The guidance says the one-year assessment clock does not start until both are available.GOV

This clarifies the manual’s description of an existing statutory route. Section 77(4A)(a) already covers a loss of VAT brought about deliberately by the taxpayer or someone acting on their behalf.Legislation Section 77(4B) expressly includes loss arising from a deliberate inaccuracy in a document given to HMRC.Legislation The guidance now refers to section 77(4A), replacing its former reference to section 77(4)(a).

For these assessments, section 77(4) permits assessment no more than 20 years after the end of the prescribed accounting period.Legislation It operates alongside section 73(6): an assessment must satisfy section 77 and be made no later than the later of two years after the accounting period ends or one year after sufficient evidence of facts comes to HMRC’s knowledge. An extended look-back therefore does not dispense with the evidence-based timing requirement.GOV

HMRC illustrates the distinction using an assurance visit on 31 May 2025, when an officer quantifies under-declared output tax for a period ending 31 July 2023. In the example, the quantum and sufficient deliberate-or-dishonest-conduct evidence for earlier periods are obtained by 17 October 2025. HMRC says the officer then has until 16 October 2026 to make the extended assessments. The October 2026 date is the assessment deadline in that worked example.

The manual also warns officers to protect the ordinary four-year assessments while investigating conduct: waiting for an evasion case can allow periods to fall outside the applicable time limits. Its closing warning still uses the narrower language of fraud or dishonesty evidence, while the revised opening and the statute expressly address deliberate loss. The statutory ground and the evidence supporting it therefore need separate attention from that retained wording.

The legal basis is the Value Added Tax Act 1994, sections 73(6), 77(1), 77(4), 77(4A)(a) and 77(4B), explained in HMRC’s VAT Assessments and Error Correction guidance VAEC1360.

Check when HMRC held sufficient evidence of both the arrears and deliberate conduct, and track the ordinary assessment limits alongside the 20-year limit.

Sources