How the figures work

Methodology and limitations

Waiting-time calculation

For a report marked paid, waiting time is the number of calendar days from submission to payment. For every unresolved status, it is the number of calendar days from submission to today, so it continues to increase. The server calculates this value; the browser does not submit it.

Primary measure

We lead with the median: half of reported waits are shorter and half are longer. The average is also shown, but a few unusually long waits can distort it. The 25th and 75th percentiles describe the middle half of reports. Minimum and maximum figures may be unrepresentative.

Inclusion and suppression

Only published reports enter public figures. Pending, flagged and rejected reports are excluded. Filters with fewer than five matching reports are suppressed. When two or more filters are combined, the threshold rises to ten. Breakdown categories with fewer than five reports are omitted.

Data quality

Reports are self-submitted and are not independently verified. Validation rejects impossible date combinations, future dates and claims outside the configured 24-month window. Duplicate detection and submission controls reduce abuse, but cannot eliminate it.

Limitations

This service has only recently launched, so the available dataset is currently limited. Users of this site are a self-selected sample and may not represent all VAT repayments. Results describe this sample only and cannot predict when any individual repayment will arrive.