VAT Flat Rate Percentages by Industry

What Are Flat Rate Percentages?

If you use the VAT Flat Rate Scheme, you pay a fixed percentage of your gross (VAT-inclusive) turnover to HMRC instead of calculating exact input and output VAT. The percentage depends on your type of business.

In your first year of VAT registration, you get a 1% discount on your rate.

Flat Rate Percentages (Selected Industries)

| Business Type | Rate | |---------------|------| | Accountancy or bookkeeping | 14.5% | | Advertising | 11% | | Agricultural services | 11% | | Architecture, civil and structural engineering | 14.5% | | Boarding or care of animals | 12% | | Business services not listed elsewhere | 12% | | Catering services including restaurants and takeaways | 12.5% | | Computer and IT consultancy | 14.5% | | Computer repair services | 10.5% | | Dealing in waste or scrap | 10.5% | | Entertainment or journalism | 12.5% | | Estate agency or property management | 12% | | Farming or agriculture | 6.5% | | Film, radio, television or video production | 13% | | Hairdressing or beauty treatment | 13% | | Hiring or renting goods | 9.5% | | Hotel or accommodation | 10.5% | | Labour-only building or construction | 14.5% | | Laundry or dry cleaning | 12% | | Legal services | 14.5% | | Library, archive, museum or similar | 9.5% | | Management consultancy | 14% | | Manufacturing not listed elsewhere | 9.5% | | Membership organisation | 12% | | Mining or quarrying | 10% | | Packaging | 9% | | Photography | 11% | | Post offices | 5% | | Printing | 8.5% | | Publishing | 11% | | Pubs | 6.5% | | Real estate activity | 14% | | Repairing personal or household goods | 10% | | Repairing vehicles | 8.5% | | Retailing not listed elsewhere | 7.5% | | Secretarial services | 13% | | Social work | 11% | | Sport or recreation | 8.5% | | Transport or storage | 10% | | Travel agency | 10.5% | | Veterinary medicine | 11% | | Waste or scrap dealing | 10.5% |

Limited Cost Traders: 16.5%

If your purchases of goods are less than 2% of your gross turnover (or less than £1,000 per year if turnover exceeds £50,000), you're a limited cost trader and your flat rate is 16.5% regardless of industry.

This catches most service businesses with minimal physical purchases.

Is the Flat Rate Scheme Worth It?

Compare your flat rate percentage with the effective VAT rate you'd pay under standard accounting. See our detailed guide on the Flat Rate VAT Scheme.

Find out which VAT scheme saves you money. Start your free trial with Accounted and let Penny model the options.