Guides · 4 min read
How long you have to claim self-build VAT
The rules changed in December 2023, and a lot of what's online still reflects the old ones.
The current position
If your build completed on or after 5 December 2023, you have six months from completion to submit. If it completed before that, the old three-month window applies.
You get one claim. Not one a year, not one per phase. One, covering everything, submitted once.
What counts as completion
Usually the date on your building regulation completion certificate. But it has been litigated repeatedly, and it isn't always the certificate date. Occupation, a habitation letter or the finishing of works have all been argued.
If your completion date is at all ambiguous, or the deadline is close, that's a question for a professional rather than a website.
Why it catches people
The claim is the last thing on your mind when you finally move in. Six months feels generous until you're chasing a merchant who no longer has your invoice on their system, for goods bought two years earlier, while living in a house that still needs skirting boards.
The work isn't the form. It's assembling two years of invoices and getting the defective ones corrected, and that gets harder every month you leave it.
What to do now
If you're mid-build, check your invoices as they arrive. If you've finished, work out your date today and count forward. If you're past it, a late claim needs a written explanation and HMRC isn't obliged to accept it, but it's worth asking rather than assuming.
Keep every invoice right as you go. Footings checks each one as it arrives, while the merchant will still fix it.