Value-added tax return for final reporting period of calendar year

Recalculation
It may be necessary for you to recalculate your business’ value-added tax charge for the calendar year in the context of filing the value-added tax return for the final reporting period of the year. The input tax deduction will need to be recalculated where the deployment of operating assets has changed from taxed to exempted activities or vice versa. The recalculation period has been fixed at five years for moveable operating assets compared with ten years for immoveable properties. Recalculation of the value-added tax is also called for in connection with moveable properties that have been sitting vacant for more than two years (each).

Adjustment for private use of company car
The private use of a company car – including commuting – by the entrepreneur him or herself and by his or her staff is regarded as a notional service in so far as the user pays no consideration for being allowed to use the car. The adjustment for private use is calculated on the basis of the actual private use, in addition to which the option is available of applying a flat-rate charge of 2.7% of the car’s listed price (inclusive of value-added tax and private motor vehicle cum motorcycle tax), or a reduced flat-rate charge of 1.5% where the car in question has been fully depreciated (i.e. on expiry of a five-year term including the year it was first taken into use).

In the event that the consideration for the use of the company car is unusually low, adjustment should take place on the basis for calculating the value-added tax due and payable by raising it to what would be the car’s regular value. Here too the option is available of basing the calculation of the value-added tax due and payable on the flat-rate charge of 2.7% of the listed price (inclusive of value-added tax and private motor vehicle cum motorcycle tax) rather than having value-added tax charged on the regular value.