As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly prepare your UK VAT return.

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, power-user skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the relevant VAT return period in your bookkeeping or accounting system and export the sales, purchases, VAT report and transaction-level data in CSV or spreadsheet format.
   2. Gather the invoices, credit notes, import and export records, and evidence for any reverse-charge, bad-debt, partial-exemption, capital-goods or other VAT adjustments in the period.
   3. Record the business's VAT accounting scheme and return period, then remove passwords, bank credentials and unnecessary personal data from the files before uploading them to an AI tool.
   4. Paste the prompt and upload the records, asking the tool to stop on missing or conflicting information rather than filling gaps.
   5. Compare every proposed VAT box with the bookkeeping VAT report, the underlying invoices and the transaction totals, and investigate every item the AI marks as uncertain.
   6. Check unusual transactions against the relevant current GOV.UK VAT guidance and ask an accountant or tax adviser to review any treatment you cannot verify.
   7. Enter the approved figures into the HMRC VAT return yourself or pass the reconciled pack to your accountant, and retain the source records and review notes.

   Prompt

   Prepare a draft UK VAT return from the records I provide, but do not file it with HMRC and do not invent or estimate any figures.
   
   Business details:
   - VAT accounting scheme: [standard, cash accounting, annual accounting, flat rate or unknown]
   - VAT return period: [start date to end date]
   - VAT registration date, if relevant: [date or unknown]
   - Currency: GBP
   
   I will provide transaction data, VAT reports, purchase and sales invoices, credit notes, import or export information, and details of any partial exemption, reverse charge, fuel scale charges, bad debt relief, capital goods scheme adjustments or other adjustments. Treat missing information as unknown.
   
   Use only the records supplied and current UK guidance from GOV.UK that I provide or link to. For every calculation, show the source rows, the VAT rate or treatment used, and the arithmetic. Separate net amounts from VAT amounts. Identify duplicate, missing, out-of-period, zero-rated, exempt, outside-the-scope, reverse-charge and potentially misclassified transactions. Do not decide an uncertain VAT treatment silently.
   
   Produce:
   1. A reconciliation of sales, purchases and VAT totals to the source records.
   2. A proposed figure for each relevant VAT return box, including boxes one to nine where applicable.
   3. A list of transactions and judgements that need human confirmation.
   4. A list of records still needed before the return can be approved.
   5. A final checklist for comparing the draft with the bookkeeping system and HMRC guidance.
   
   If the records conflict, stop and explain the conflict rather than choosing a figure. State clearly that this is a draft for review, not a filed return or professional advice.

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