VAT Health Checks: What They Cover and Why They Matter Before an FTA Audit
Published by Valusage Advisory Team
Most VAT issues aren't discovered by the business that has them — they're discovered during an FTA review, by which point correcting them costs more in time, penalties and disruption than catching them early ever would have.
What a health check actually reviews
A proper review works through VAT treatment applied to actual transactions, the accuracy of tax invoices issued and received, reconciliation between VAT returns and the underlying accounting records, and the specific risk areas most likely to attract FTA attention.
The most common issues it turns up
Incorrect VAT treatment on cross-border or zero-rated transactions, tax invoices missing required fields, and small reconciliation differences between filed returns and the accounting records are the issues we see most often — individually minor, collectively a real exposure if left unaddressed across multiple periods.
Why 'we've never been audited' isn't reassurance
Not being audited yet says nothing about whether your VAT position is correct — it says the FTA hasn't looked yet. A health check is the only way to know your actual position before an authority review forces the answer.
Where Valusage fits
Our Value Added Tax (VAT) Review examines VAT treatment, tax invoices, reconciliations, return positions and key risk areas for one entity, then issues a findings and action report. This is not an audit or a legal opinion.
Need advisory guidance for your enterprise?
Speak with a Valusage partner to review your accounting and tax compliance roadmap.