From crossing £90,000 to filing your first return — registration, flat rate maths and invoicing without a single penalty.
- £39
- 8 modules
- 4-sheet toolkit
- Updated at every Budget
- 30-day refund
The £90,000 threshold is tested on any rolling twelve months, not on your accounting year, and services you buy from overseas count towards it. It is entirely possible to be forced to register because of what you spent on software, not because of what you sold. Most guides stop at “register when you hit £90,000”. That is where this one starts.
Then there is the Flat Rate Scheme, which sounds like a gift and, for almost every service-based freelancer, is not. The limited cost trader test pushes most consultants, designers and writers onto 16.5%, and at that rate the scheme usually costs money. The course computes the answer on your figures rather than on a sector average.
What’s inside
- Monitoring the rolling twelve months, including the reverse-charge purchases that quietly count
- Voluntary registration: the maths for B2B clients versus consumers, and the exception application for a temporary spike
- Pricing the jump — a 20% problem with B2C clients, close to neutral with B2B, with a letter for each
- The Flat Rate Scheme done honestly: the limited cost trader test at 16.5%, which almost every service freelancer fails, computed on your own figures
- The VAT invoice: twelve mandatory fields, tax points, deposits and part-payments
- Returns and MTD for VAT, the points-based penalty regime, and paying so it clears in time
- Pre-registration reclaims (four years for goods, six months for services), bad debt relief, error corrections
- Deregistering at £88,000 — and the final-return charge on stock and assets that catches people out
The templates
A rolling twelve-month threshold monitor that warns you before you cross, a flat-rate-versus-standard calculator with the limited cost test built in, a pre-registration VAT reclaim schedule, and a first-return checklist. Plus four editable documents: registration-gap invoice wording, VAT invoice layouts, two client letters, and the deregistration checklist.
How you would actually use it
Set up the rolling threshold monitor first, so you see the crossing coming a quarter out. Then run the flat rate calculator with your own turnover and costs, which settles the scheme question in ten minutes. The rest is sequence: the registration application, the price-rise letters for B2B and B2C clients, the twelve mandatory invoice fields, and the first return, with pre-registration reclaims claimed before you forget them.
Buying more than one? All ten 2026/27 courses, 262 pages and 44 templates, are £119 against £328 at full price. See the full course list.
Not for you if: you sell goods into the EU, or you are on a margin or second-hand scheme — those need their own advice.
Before you buy
I am nowhere near £90,000. Should I still register voluntarily?
Sometimes. If your clients are VAT-registered businesses, registration is close to neutral for them and lets you reclaim VAT on your costs. If your clients are consumers, it is a 20% price problem. The course works through both.
Does it cover MTD for VAT and the penalty points?
Yes. Returns, the points-based penalty system, and paying so that it clears in time are all in the returns module.
What if I sell goods, or sell into the EU?
Then you need advice beyond this course. It is written for UK-based service businesses. Goods, margin schemes and EU distance selling have their own rules.
Can I reclaim VAT on things I bought before registering?
Often, yes: four years for goods you still hold and six months for services. The pre-registration reclaim schedule lists what qualifies.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Figures checked against HMRC and other primary sources at publication — see our editorial policy.