As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly apply the domestic reverse charge for UK construction services.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the current GOV.UK HMRC guidance on the VAT domestic reverse charge for building and construction services.
   2. Gather the signed contract, scope of works, customer VAT number, customer statement or evidence about end-user or intermediary status, CIS information, project details and proposed invoice figures.
   3. Paste the prompt and replace every bracketed slot with the documents' exact facts, removing confidential information that the chatbot does not need.
   4. Ask the chatbot to identify the relevant HMRC source and produce a provisional conclusion, rather than asking it to assume that the reverse charge applies.
   5. Compare each cited rule and each factual assumption with the current GOV.UK guidance, contract and customer evidence, and mark every unresolved point.
   6. Send the prompt's conclusion, evidence list and draft invoice wording to a UK VAT accountant for review before issuing the invoice or including the transaction in the VAT records.
   7. After approval, update the accounting system and invoice using the accountant's confirmed VAT treatment, then retain the contract, customer evidence and review record.

   Prompt

   Assess whether the UK domestic reverse charge for construction services should apply to this transaction. Use only the facts I provide and current HMRC guidance that you can identify. Do not guess, and do not treat missing information as evidence that the reverse charge applies or does not apply.
   
   Supplier details:
   - VAT registration status: [insert]
   - CIS status, if relevant: [insert]
   
   Customer details:
   - Customer VAT registration number and status: [insert]
   - Whether the customer is the end user or an intermediary: [insert]
   - Evidence of the customer's end-user position or notification: [insert]
   
   Transaction details:
   - Exact services supplied: [insert]
   - Property or project description: [insert]
   - Contract parties: [insert]
   - Whether the supply is wholly or partly within the construction services rules: [insert]
   - Whether materials are included: [insert]
   - Net amount and invoice currency: [insert]
   - Proposed invoice date: [insert]
   - Any connected or mixed supplies: [insert]
   
   Give me:
   1. A provisional conclusion: reverse charge applies, does not apply, or cannot be determined.
   2. The facts and HMRC rules supporting that conclusion, with a source for each important point.
   3. Every missing fact or document that could change the result.
   4. The proposed VAT treatment, including whether VAT should be charged on the invoice, without inventing a VAT rate or amount.
   5. Draft invoice wording that is consistent with the conclusion, clearly labelled as a draft.
   6. The VAT return and bookkeeping points that need checking, without claiming to file anything.
   7. A short list of questions for a UK VAT accountant before the invoice is issued.
   
   This is not professional advice. If the conclusion is uncertain, the transaction is material, or the parties disagree about end-user status, tell me to obtain review from a UK VAT accountant before issuing the invoice.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.