VATMARG03450 - Global accounting: Opening stock and global accounting

When a business starts to use global accounting, it may have a stock of goods on hand which is eligible for sale under the scheme.

The business will have to establish an opening credit when starting to use global accounting. One way of doing this would be to undertake a stock-take of eligible goods on hand to establish the purchase value for the purposes of the global accounting scheme.

This method can only be used if the business can distinguish between global accounting goods and other goods. If the stock on hand cannot be related to the original purchase documents, the purchase value may be determined in another way. Although there is no set way of doing this, you must be satisfied that the method used is fair and reasonable.

The legal basis for this is Article 13 (5) of the VAT (Special Provisions) Order 1995(SI 1995/1268).