A VAT Health Check is a structured review of your historical VAT returns, underlying records and transaction classification, designed to surface errors, missed input claims, or compliance risk before the FTA identifies them independently through an audit. It is the same kind of review an FTA auditor would perform — but run on your terms, with time to correct anything found rather than facing it as a formal dispute.
What's Included
Why a Health Check Is Worth Doing
Errors found through your own health check can typically be corrected through a Voluntary Disclosure, which carries significantly lower penalties than the same error being identified by the FTA during an audit. The difference between proactively disclosing an error and having it discovered can be the difference between a manageable penalty and a substantial one, plus interest.
A health check is also valuable simply as reassurance — many businesses have never had their VAT position independently reviewed since registering, and a clean result is confidence worth having before a bank facility renewal, an investor due diligence process, or a business sale.
Who Needs This Service
Businesses that have never had an independent VAT review, companies preparing for a bank facility, investment round or sale, and any business that has switched bookkeepers or software and wants confirmation that VAT treatment carried across correctly.
What We'll Need From You
Our Process
We agree the scope and period to review, examine returns against underlying records, document any errors or risk areas found, and deliver a written report with prioritised recommendations, followed by a call to walk through the findings together.
Getting Started
Tell us how many periods you would like reviewed and any specific concerns you have, and we will provide a fixed quote for the review before any work begins — most health checks for a single year complete within one to two weeks.
What the Report Covers
Beyond a simple pass or fail, the report breaks down findings by return period and transaction type, quantifies the financial exposure of anything found, and separates urgent issues needing immediate correction from lower-priority process improvements worth making over time.
A Health Check as an Annual Habit
Health Checks Before Switching Providers
A health check is also a useful step before switching to a new bookkeeper or accountant generally, not just before switching to us — it gives you an independent baseline of where your VAT position actually stands, so the transition starts from verified figures rather than inherited assumptions.
What Happens if You Decide Not to Disclose
If a health check identifies an error and you choose not to pursue a Voluntary Disclosure, we explain the ongoing exposure this leaves in place so you can make an informed decision — including how the risk changes the longer an identified error goes uncorrected.
Our health checks are performed by the same senior team members who handle FTA audits and disputes for other clients, meaning the review is conducted with genuine knowledge of what an auditor actually looks for — not a generic checklist review. This is what makes the findings genuinely predictive of what an FTA audit would uncover, rather than a surface-level pass.
We also price health checks as a fixed, transparent fee agreed before work begins, so there is no surprise cost regardless of how many issues the review happens to uncover.
Beyond a general review, we also offer a narrower, faster health check focused on a single area of concern — export documentation, related-party transactions, or a specific product line’s VAT treatment — for businesses that already suspect where an issue might be and want it confirmed quickly rather than commissioning a full-scope review.
This targeted option is also a practical way to build confidence in a specific area before committing to a full-scope review, particularly for businesses working within a tighter budget or timeline.
Get Expert Help for Your Business
Talk to an FTA-approved tax consultant today. Free consultation, no obligation — we’ll tell you exactly what your business needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
A health check is a voluntary, private review you commission for your own benefit — an FTA audit is a formal, mandatory review the tax authority initiates, with legal consequences attached.
We explain the issue and its financial impact, then recommend next steps, which is typically a Voluntary Disclosure to correct the affected return before the FTA identifies it independently.
This depends on your risk appetite and how long you have been registered — many clients start with the most recent one to two years, since the FTA’s typical review window covers this period.
Yes, it is a private engagement between you and us — nothing is reported to the FTA unless you choose to act on the findings through a Voluntary Disclosure.
Most single-year reviews for a small to mid-sized business complete within one to two weeks, depending on record volume and how organised the underlying data is.