As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly work out whether you can reclaim VAT on a business car.

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 relevant current HMRC and GOV.UK VAT guidance, then save the pages covering cars, commercial vehicles, leases, fuel, private use and business expenses.
   2. Gather the purchase or lease agreement, supplier VAT invoice, payment records, vehicle description, mileage records and invoices for fuel, servicing and repairs.
   3. Write down the business's VAT registration status, VAT scheme, business use, private use, commuting arrangements and whether the vehicle is available to any director or employee.
   4. Paste the prompt and the gathered facts into a chatbot, attaching or pasting the invoice wording and relevant figures without including unnecessary personal data.
   5. Ask the model to produce the fact table and item-by-item analysis, then check every cited rule by opening the linked GOV.UK or HMRC page.
   6. Mark every conclusion that depends on missing facts or interpretation, and compare the model's assumptions with the agreements, invoices and mileage records.
   7. Send the documents, the checked analysis and the list of unresolved questions to a UK VAT accountant before including any amount in a VAT return.

   Prompt

   Assess whether my UK VAT-registered business may reclaim VAT connected with this car. This is a preliminary analysis only, not professional advice.
   
   Use current HMRC and GOV.UK guidance available as at 2026-08-13. Cite the exact GOV.UK or HMRC source for every rule you rely on, and say when you cannot verify a point from an official source. Do not invent facts, rates, dates, eligibility or amounts. Do not give a definitive filing instruction.
   
   Business details:
   - Business activity: [describe]
   - VAT registration status and scheme: [describe]
   - Tax point or purchase date: [date]
   - Intended business use: [describe]
   - Expected private use, including availability to directors or employees: [describe]
   
   Vehicle and transaction:
   - Vehicle type and body style: [car, van or other; describe]
   - New or used: [describe]
   - Purchase, lease, hire or finance arrangement: [describe]
   - Supplier invoice and VAT details: [paste the invoice wording or attach it]
   - VAT amount shown: [amount or unknown]
   - Whether the vehicle is used for business travel, commuting, deliveries or pool use: [describe]
   - VAT on fuel, servicing, repairs, insurance and other running costs: [list each item and attach invoices where available]
   - Any mileage records or private-use charge: [describe]
   
   Return:
   1. A fact table showing what is known, what is missing and what assumption would otherwise be required.
   2. Separate analysis for the vehicle itself, lease or finance payments, fuel, servicing and repairs, rather than treating them as one claim.
   3. The possible VAT treatment for each item, with a confidence label of confirmed from the cited source, likely but fact-dependent, or cannot determine.
   4. The specific facts that could change the outcome, especially private use, vehicle classification, invoice wording and the arrangement with the supplier.
   5. A list of documents and questions to take to a UK VAT accountant.
   6. A final section titled "Do not claim until checked" containing any issue that needs professional confirmation.
   
   Do not calculate a reclaim amount unless the relevant VAT treatment and figures are supported by the documents and cited official guidance.

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