This course will be helpful to will be helpful to any staff placing purchase orders and processing purchase invoices, as well as those involved in budgeting. (It does not deal with specialist areas such as estates). 

Intended audience:

• All staff raising purchase orders in any university department.
• Accounts Payable staff dealing with purchase invoices.
• University procurement staff.
• Departmental and other staff dealing with VAT coding for purchase orders or purchase invoices.
• Staff who need to consider VAT and budgeting as part of their role e.g. budgeting for research grant applications, raising POs etc.

Objectives:

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

• Explain why your university has to pay VAT on some purchases and not on others;
• Recognise the link between activity/associated income and the purchase for that activity, and identify the resultant VAT cost (if any);
• Use your knowledge from this module to consider the VAT coding and true VAT cost of purchases you make;
• Use your knowledge from this module to apply it to your own university’s VAT coding structure to identify the correct VAT code for your requisitions, purchase orders and/or AP invoices.

Topics covered:

• Basic Principles
  • What is the cost to the university?
  • VAT Rates/Liabilities
• VAT liability of supplies
  • Supplies not subject to VAT
  • Common zero rated and exempt purchases in the HE sector
  • Common reduced rated and standard rated purchases in the HE sector
  • Buying from overseas
• Reclaiming VAT
  • Overview
  • Recovery of VAT in ‘the pot’
  • Tax invoices
• Suggested further actions

This course is intended for anyone responsible for purchasing items and who needs to know if relief from VAT is available. It will explain VAT reliefs commonly available to universities and how they are claimed. (It doesn’t cover reliefs for medical/veterinary teaching or research. There is a separate module for this – see below.)

Intended audience:

• Staff raising purchase orders in any university department.
• Staff who need to consider VAT and budgeting as part of their role e.g. budgeting for research grant applications, raising POs etc.

Objectives:

You will learn how to:

• Explain the relief which is available on expenditure for advertising
• Identify when relief can be claimed when buying goods and services for the benefit of people with disabilities
• Identify when relief is available when buying from another educational body
• Make a claim when relief is available

Topics covered:

• General principles
• VAT reliefs for advertising
• Goods and services for people with disabilities
• Buying goods and services from another eligible body
• How to claim relief

This course is designed to help anyone responsible for purchasing items which will be used in medical or veterinary research and training. It will explain which VAT reliefs are commonly available to universities undertaking medical or veterinary research and training and how they are claimed.

Intended audience:

• Staff raising purchase orders in medical or veterinary (and some science) departments.
• University procurement staff working with medical or veterinary (and some science) departments.
• Staff in medical or veterinary (and some science) departments who need to consider VAT and budgeting as part of their role e.g. budgeting for research grant applications, raising POs etc.

Objectives:

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

• Explain the VAT relief which is available on equipment, parts and accessories
• Identify when VAT relief can be claimed on medicinal products and other substances
• Identify when relief is available on human blood and organs
• Make a claim when relief is available

Topics covered:

• General principles
  • How VAT reliefs work
  • Different reliefs
• Equipment
  • Qualifying purpose
  • Qualifying equipment
• Other purchases eligible for relief
  • Medicinal products
  • Substances used for synthesis and testing
  • Software
  • Human blood and organs
• How to claim relief
• Common errors

This course will help those dealing with income in the university to get it right, whether that be invoices, cash receipts or donations etc. It will help you select the correct VAT rate or agree the correct VAT terms and prices. The module does not cover research.

Intended audience:

The module is aimed at:

• those responsible for raising invoices,
• department/school administrators,
• cashier teams (or equivalent), and
• fundraisers.

Objectives:

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

• Explain the difference between the various VAT treatments where no VAT is charged
• Identify the correct VAT rate for different sales/sources of income
• Identify when the location of the customer affects the VAT rate for the sale/source of income
• Charge the correct amount of VAT to a customer/agree the correct VAT treatment in a contract
• Use your knowledge from this module and apply it to your own university’s VAT coding structure to identify the correct VAT rate for your sales invoices/miscellaneous income/other income.

Topics covered:

• Does VAT apply?
  • How to decide
  • Outside the scope
• VAT liability for supplies
  • Zero rated supplies
  • Exempt supplies
  • Reduced rated supplies
  • Standard rated supplies
  • Recharging costs
• Overseas income
• Time of Supply

This course will be helpful to those responsible for dealing with financial transactions in universities, such as budgeting, purchasing or generating income. It provides an overview of how VAT applies specifically in the higher education sector but is not intended to be a fully comprehensive guide. 

Intended audience:

• Administrative and finance staff based in academic departments who are not VAT experts but have to deal with VAT as part of their role e.g. departmental administrators dealing with budgeting, finance staff raising POs and coding invoices etc.
• Academic staff who need to consider VAT and budgeting as part of their role e.g. budgeting for research grant applications, raising POs etc.
• Central finance staff who are not VAT experts but have to deal with VAT on transactions, such as Accounts Receivable staff raising invoices, and Accounts Payable staff processing invoices

Objectives:

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

• Explain what VAT is and when it is charged
• Identify the VAT treatment of common forms of income
• Identify when they should expect to see VAT on purchases and when they should be able to claim relief from VAT
• Explain when VAT incurred on purchases will need to be included in their budgets
• Identify how VAT should apply to purchases made from overseas suppliers

Topics covered:

• An Overview of VAT
  • VAT basics: what is VAT?
  • UK VAT rates: taxable, exempt and ‘outside the scope’ supplies
  • VAT on purchases: the basics
• VAT on income
  • Identify the VAT treatment of common forms of income
  • Does VAT apply?
  • Overseas supplies
• VAT on purchases
  • When, how and on what purchases can relief be claimed?
  • If VAT is incurred, can it be recovered through a VAT return?
• VAT on purchases & budgeting
  • VAT & budgeting
  • Reclaiming VAT
  • Recovery of VAT in ‘the pot’
• Buying from overseas