If a business cannot avoid paying VAT to the HMRC, the next best thing is to defer payment as long as legitimately possible. There are a number of ways this may be done, dependent upon a business’ circumstances, but the following general points are worth considering for any VAT registered entity.
A tax point (time of supply) is the time a supply is “crystallised” and the VAT becomes due to HMRC and dictates the VAT return period in which VAT must be accounted for. Very broadly, this is the earliest of; invoice date, receipt of payment, goods transferred or services completed (although there are quite a few fiddly bits to these basic rules as set out in the link above).
Source: marcusward.co
