As of 13 August 2026, AI cannot file your UK VAT return to HMRC.

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 the relevant VAT period in your bookkeeping system and download the sales, purchases, credit notes, imports, reverse-charge entries and VAT account records.
   2. Open the current VAT return guidance and your VAT registration details on GOV.UK, then note your VAT scheme, accounting basis and the period dates.
   3. Remove duplicate or cancelled records from a working copy, label each transaction with its VAT treatment, and keep the original records unchanged.
   4. Paste the period details and the working records into a chatbot with the supplied prompt, asking it to produce box-by-box calculations and a list of unresolved items.
   5. Compare every proposed box total with the VAT account, sales and purchase ledgers, invoices and credit notes, and resolve each missing or unknown item with your VAT accountant.
   6. Give the checked working paper and supporting records to the person or software authorised to file through the required HMRC-connected process, then retain the submitted return and reconciliation.

   Prompt

   You are helping prepare, not submit, a UK VAT return. Do not log in to HMRC, submit anything, invent figures, choose a VAT treatment without evidence, or give definitive tax advice. Using the records and details below, produce a draft working paper for the VAT period [start date] to [end date].
   
   Business and VAT details:
   [VAT registration details, VAT scheme, accounting basis, and any known special VAT treatments]
   
   Source records:
   [Paste or attach sales invoices, purchase invoices, credit notes, import records, reverse-charge records, payment records, and the bookkeeping export]
   
   Tasks:
   1. Reconcile the source records to the accounting period and identify missing, duplicated, cancelled or unusual transactions.
   2. Calculate proposed figures for each relevant VAT return box, showing the source transactions and calculation behind every figure.
   3. Separate net amounts from VAT amounts and distinguish standard-rated, zero-rated, exempt, outside-scope, reverse-charge and unknown items.
   4. List every judgement that could change a box, with the document or HMRC guidance needed to resolve it.
   5. State clearly where the records are incomplete or the VAT treatment cannot be determined.
   6. Produce a final checklist for a VAT accountant or authorised filer to verify before submission.
   
   Use only figures present in the records. Mark missing information as missing. Do not estimate. Include a reconciliation from the detailed records to the proposed totals and do not describe the draft as filed or ready to submit.

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