Independent VAT repayment guide

VAT repayment waiting times: what the figures mean

Understand HMRC’s published VAT repayment timeframe and how to interpret the limited waiting-time sample reported by users of this site.

HMRC’s published timeframe

GOV.UK says VAT repayments are usually made within 30 days of HMRC receiving a VAT Return. A repayment can take longer when HMRC needs to check that the return and amount are accurate.

Read the current official guidance on VAT repayments on GOV.UK.

What this tracker measures

This site shows waiting times reported by its users. For a report marked paid, the wait runs from the reported submission date to the reported payment date. Every report without a payment date is labelled open, including an approved report that has not yet been marked paid. Its elapsed time runs from submission to today and therefore continues to increase.

Headline aggregates combine elapsed-so-far durations for open cases with completed waits for paid cases. They are not a measure of completed repayment times alone, so the open and paid case counts should always be considered alongside them.

These figures are not “current HMRC waiting times”. They describe a self-selected sample submitted to this independent site, and the reports are not independently verified.

Why the median is shown first

A small number of long waits can pull an average upwards. The median gives the middle reported wait: half are shorter and half are longer. The sample size and middle 50% should be considered alongside it.

Why early figures need extra caution

The tracker has only recently launched, so the dataset is currently limited. Statistics are shown even when only one report matches, so small-sample figures can reveal that contributor’s submitted values and may not represent VAT repayments generally.

See the full methodology and limitations before interpreting any result.