United Kingdom Value Added Tax (standard rate)
United Kingdom Value Added Tax (standard rate) is 20 percent, in force since 4 Jan 2011. It was 17.5 percent before that. Last checked against the official source on 11 Sep 2026.
UK standard rate of VAT charged on taxable supplies of goods and services, administered by HM Revenue & Customs.
| Current value | 20 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2011-01-04 |
| Official source | Value Added Tax Act 1994, section 2(1), as amended by the Finance (No. 2) Act 2010, section 3 (rate substituted with effect from 4 January 2011) |
| Last verified | 2026-09-11 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Statutory standard rate is 20% (VATA 1994 s.2(1): 'VAT shall be charged at the rate of 20 per cent'), unchanged since 4 January 2011. Two other positive/zero rates exist and are NOT blended into this figure: a 5% reduced rate (VATA 1994 s.29A and Sch 7A — domestic fuel and power, children's car seats, mobility aids for the over-60s, smoking-cessation products, certain energy-saving materials) and a 0% zero rate (s.30 and Sch 8 — most food for human consumption, books/newspapers including e-publications, children's clothing and footwear, new-build residential construction, most public transport, prescription drugs). Separately, some supplies are EXEMPT (Sch 9: most financial services, insurance, postal services, education, health and welfare) — exempt is not the same as zero-rated because it blocks input-tax recovery. REGISTRATION THRESHOLD: compulsory VAT registration once taxable turnover in the previous rolling 12 months exceeds GBP 90,000, or is expected to exceed GBP 90,000 in the next 30 days (threshold raised from GBP 85,000 on 1 April 2024); the deregistration threshold is GBP 88,000. Both thresholds remain at those levels for 2026-27. VAT applies across Great Britain and, for goods, Northern Ireland operates under the Windsor Framework arrangements. VAT BANDS (added 2026-07-27): the country's other statutory bands are now served as structured data on this series and can be priced through /v1/answers/vat by passing the band key. We publish each band and the scope the instrument itself states; we do NOT classify a particular supply into a band, which is a legal determination.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2010-01-01 | 17.5 | — |
| 2008-12-01 | 15 | — |
| 1991-04-01 | 17.5 | — |
Get it programmatically
curl https://euroref.dev/v1/gb/vat
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://euroref.dev/v1/gb/vat/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/gb/vatOther United Kingdom series: Bank of England Bank Rate · National Living Wage (statutory minimum, age 21+) · Bank and public holidays 2026 · Consumer Prices Index, annual inflation rate · Corporation Tax (main rate) · Withholding tax rates · Income Tax bands (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) · Statutory social-insurance contributions · Late-payment interest (Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act) · Statutory interest on judgment debts (Judgments Act rate) · VAT registration threshold
The same figure elsewhere: Austria · Belgium · Bulgaria · Croatia · Cyprus · all 34