As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly check whether you can reclaim VAT on an expense.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the receipt or VAT invoice and copy its supplier, invoice date, VAT number if shown, net amount, VAT amount, total and description into the prompt, removing unnecessary personal data.
   2. Write down your business VAT registration status, VAT accounting scheme, business activity and whether the expense had any private use.
   3. Paste the completed prompt into a chatbot and ask it to classify the expense as likely reclaimable, likely not reclaimable, or needing a VAT accountant to confirm.
   4. Open the GOV.UK sources returned by the chatbot and compare their wording with the expense category and your VAT scheme, rather than relying on the chatbot summary.
   5. Check that the receipt or VAT invoice contains the evidence the source requires and that the VAT amount being considered matches the document.
   6. Record the conclusion and evidence in your bookkeeping system, or send the documents and the unresolved questions to a VAT accountant before including a doubtful amount on the VAT return.

   Prompt

   Check whether my business can reclaim VAT on this expense under current UK rules. Do not give a confident answer where the facts are incomplete. Separate the analysis into: VAT registration and scheme assumptions, whether the expense is for business purposes, whether the supplier has charged UK VAT, whether the evidence is sufficient, any category-specific restriction or exception, and the action I should take. State exactly which missing facts could change the answer. Use current GOV.UK sources where available and provide the relevant links. Do not invent figures, dates, invoice details or rules. Give a provisional outcome of likely reclaimable, likely not reclaimable, or needs a VAT accountant to confirm. This is not professional advice.
   
   Business details:
   VAT registration status: [registered, not registered, or unsure]
   VAT accounting scheme: [scheme or unsure]
   Business type and activity: [description]
   Expense purpose: [description]
   Supplier and country: [details]
   Receipt or VAT invoice details: [paste the details, removing unnecessary personal data]
   VAT amount shown: [amount or not shown]
   Business and private use: [description]
   Anything unusual about the expense: [details]

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