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PARTLY

As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly calculate the VAT you can reclaim on your business purchases.

This still needs a person who signs their name to it.

Can you do it?

15 minutesto a draft.

1 hourto something you’d act on.

Cost, all in£0

Skill neededchat-fluent

Who has to check ita professional

What the alternative costsDocuClipper converts bank and card statements into clean spreadsheets automatically, but it does not decide which VAT is reclaimable.

If this goes wrong: you include ineligible VAT in a VAT return and may need to correct the return and deal with HMRC consequences.

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 purchase invoices, receipts and payment records for the VAT period, and remove unnecessary personal information before uploading them.
    2. Write down your business VAT registration status, VAT accounting scheme, VAT period, business activity, and any private or mixed use for the purchases.
    3. Upload the documents to an AI spreadsheet or document-analysis tool, then paste the prompt and the business details into the same conversation.
    4. Ask the tool to produce the itemised table, separating VAT shown on an invoice from VAT it considers potentially reclaimable.
    5. Compare every drafted row with the original invoice, checking the supplier, date, gross total, VAT amount, currency and duplicate status.
    6. Open the GOV.UK guidance links cited by the tool and mark every excluded, adjusted or unclear item for review by your accountant or VAT adviser.
    7. Give the checked table and the source invoices to the professional who prepares or reviews your VAT records before using the total in a VAT return.

    Prompt

    Calculate the input VAT that may be reclaimable on these UK business purchases. Use only the information in the documents and details I provide. Do not invent missing VAT numbers, rates, dates, supplier details or business-use proportions. For each purchase, create a table with: supplier, invoice date, invoice number, gross amount, VAT shown, VAT rate if stated, currency, business purpose, business-use percentage, potentially reclaimable VAT, and reason for any exclusion or adjustment. Separate arithmetic from eligibility. Flag missing or unclear VAT invoices, non-business items, mixed business and private use, unusual transactions, purchases made under a special VAT scheme, and anything that needs checking against current GOV.UK guidance. Do not decide that an item is reclaimable merely because VAT appears on the invoice. Use current UK guidance from https://www.gov.uk and quote the relevant page title or link for each rule relied on. State the total potentially reclaimable VAT, show the calculation, and list every item I must have a VAT-registered accountant or tax adviser check. This is not professional advice. Details of my business and VAT position: [insert details]. Purchase records or invoices: [paste or attach them].

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

What it gets wrong

  • AI cannot establish the real business purpose of a purchase when the invoice description is vague.
  • AI cannot reliably resolve mixed private and business use without your evidence and a defensible allocation.
  • AI cannot turn a missing or invalid VAT invoice into evidence that VAT is reclaimable.
  • AI cannot take responsibility for the amount entered on your VAT records or return.
  • AI cannot replace a VAT professional's judgement on special schemes, unusual transactions or disputed eligibility.

What caps this at PARTLY: judgement under ambiguity, verification cost and legal accountability.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output2
Inputs1
Verification1
Liability1
Effort delta2
Total7 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT calculate the VAT on my business purchases?
Yes, it can extract VAT figures, check arithmetic and total supplied purchase records. It cannot safely decide every eligibility question, so have a VAT professional check unclear or unusual items before you use the total.
Can AI tell me which business expenses I can reclaim VAT on?
It can classify expenses against the information and current GOV.UK guidance you provide. It can still miss facts about private use, invoice validity or special VAT treatment, so this is not professional advice and a VAT accountant should review serious or uncertain cases.
Do I need VAT receipts to reclaim VAT on purchases?
AI cannot supply evidence that your records do not contain. Ask it to flag missing or unclear VAT invoices, then confirm the evidence required for your circumstances with a VAT accountant or HMRC guidance.
Can AI put the VAT calculation into my VAT return?
AI can prepare a draft total and an audit table, but you should not treat that as an approved VAT return figure. You remain responsible for the return, and a VAT accountant should check the calculation where the amount or eligibility is significant.

Nearby answers

All VAT & tax filings rulings

Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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