HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will describe here any current important issues that customers using this online service may come across. They will let you know what to do if you are affected. HMRC are sorry for any inconvenience these may cause. If you need help with anything not listed here, please contact the Online Service helpdesk.
We are aware that after creating a new Government Gateway account at our website, some users are being immediately asked to login with their new User ID. Please do login to complete your account details. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.
New clients will appear in your list at the Government Gateway and HMRC website, 24 hours after authorisation.
If you have any queries about your client lists, please contact the VAT Online Services Helpdesk on 0300 200 3701 for assistance.
The title record must contain: HMRC_VAT_ESL_BULK_SUBMISSION_FILE.
The header record must contain:
your UK VAT Registration Number (nine digit numeric value)
your subsidiary identifier if you have one (if you do not have a subsidiary ID enter '000')
the year for your declaration for example '2010'
the period of your declaration which must be two-digit numeric representing a month.
For quarterly traders this will be one of:
03, 06, 09, 12 (corresponding to the old quarter identifiers 1,2,3,4)
For monthly traders this will be one of:
01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12
the code 'GBP' (indicating that your declaration is made in pounds sterling)
your contact name (mandatory) maximum of 35 characters (do not include the ampersand '&' symbol, for example A & N Other Ltd should be changed to A and N Other Ltd)
the indicator field (this will always be '0').
The schedule line record will include:
your customer's country code, one of:
AT, BE, BG, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EE, EL, ES, FI, FR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LU, LV, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SE, SI, SK
your customer's VAT Registration Number
the total value of supplies (Please note: If you need to show a negative value of supplies, that is if the value of credit notes is greater than the supplies, prefix the figure with a minus sign '-')
an indicator code, one of:
‘0’ (for B2B Goods)
‘2’ (if the supplier is an intermediary in a triangular transaction)
‘3’ (for B2B Services)
An example of a small CSV file is:
HMRC_VAT_ESL_BULK_SUBMISSION_FILE
123456789,123,2010,04,GBP,Fred Bloggs,0
DE,123456789,1000,0
AT,U12345678,25000,2
IE,1234567X,1250,3
LU,12345678,3760,0
Some spreadsheets can re-format your data and cause your CSV file to reject, for example dropping leading zeros from numeric fields such as the branch identifier. If you experience this problem you can take the following steps.
To change the field to a text field:
highlight the cell
select 'FORMAT'
select 'CELLS'
on the 'NUMBER' screen highlight 'TEXT' and select 'OK'
retype the data (the zero(s) will then remain)
save file again
select 'Bulk Upload' option and re-submit file.
Please note: This method will also work to correct VAT Registration Numbers where the leading zero(s) have been dropped or Excel has converted the number to scientific format for example SE 123456789012 converts to SE 1.23457E+11.
We advise that you retain the working copy of your data as the default file type for your spreadsheet program (for example for Microsoft Excel your filename.xls). When you wish to submit your data use the 'Save As' function and choose .csv. Do not try to open the .csv file in your spreadsheet program as this may corrupt the data. Make any amendments to your data in the working copy, re-save as .csv and re-submit.
When you use the 'Save as' function to create a .csv file you may be prompted that your file contains incompatible features. You should select the option to continue to save your file in CSV. After using the 'Save as' function you should close your file, do not save the changes again if you are prompted. Any further amendments should always be made to the working copy of your data.
Alternatively amendments can be made by opening your file using a text editor such as 'Notepad', or to avoid such problems you may wish to consider using the template provided on the 'Bulk Upload' page.
Validation checks are carried out during the upload of the file and any errors identified will be displayed on the 'Review and Submit' screen annotated by an 'X'. You can make a note of any errors or print off the summary for comparison purposes using 'Ctrl+P'. You will have the opportunity to amend data in your CSV file before resubmitting or you can make an additional declaration of the corrected data at a later date.
An 'Acknowledgement' message, with a unique 'Submission Reference Number', will be displayed which you can print and retain for your records. You will also have the facility to view previous submissions online.
