As of 13 August 2026, AI cannot complete your UK VAT return.

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 gets you a draft, but you cannot verify it yourself. That is the catch.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open your HMRC VAT online account and the current GOV.UK VAT return guidance, and note the VAT period and filing deadline shown for the return.
   2. Export or gather the sales ledger, purchase ledger, VAT account, VAT invoices, import and export records, reverse-charge records, adjustments and evidence for any unusual transactions in that period.
   3. Remove unnecessary personal data, label each file with its source and period, and paste the figures and relevant transaction descriptions into a chatbot using the prompt.
   4. Answer the chatbot's missing-information questions from your accounting records, and leave any unanswered item explicitly marked as unresolved rather than supplying an assumption.
   5. Compare every drafted VAT return box and calculation with your accounting system, VAT account, invoices and bank or payment records, and investigate every difference.
   6. Send the draft, source records and unresolved questions to an accountant or tax adviser for a treatment check before entering or submitting figures in the HMRC VAT online account.

   Prompt

   Help me prepare a draft UK VAT return for the VAT period [start date] to [end date]. Do not file it, submit it, or present your output as professional advice. Use only the records and figures I provide. Do not guess, estimate, or fill missing figures. First list the records received and identify missing or contradictory information. Then reconcile the sales VAT, purchase VAT, imports, exports, reverse-charge transactions, adjustments and payments against the VAT account, where those categories apply to the records. Map each supported figure to the relevant VAT return box, show the source transaction or calculation for each figure, and show the arithmetic. Flag every transaction whose VAT treatment depends on facts not supplied, including any question about rates, exemptions, partial exemption, place of supply or capital items. Produce a draft box-by-box return only where the figures are supported, followed by a separate list of unresolved questions for an accountant or tax adviser. Use current GOV.UK VAT guidance as the checking source where relevant, quote the page title or link for each rule used, and never invent a rule, rate, deadline or figure. I will compare the draft with my accounting system and VAT records before any filing.

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