Option to tax property when cancelling VAT registration

UK HMRC Publications & Guidance

Published March 31st, 2026

Detected March 31st, 2026

Summary

HMRC published guidance for businesses cancelling their VAT registration on disclosing option to tax information for land and buildings. Businesses must provide property addresses, land registry title numbers, purchase dates, and details of previous and subsequent owners when submitting their deregistration request.

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What changed

HMRC issued guidance requiring businesses to disclose details of any option to tax on properties when cancelling their VAT registration. The requirement applies to properties currently or previously owned where an option to tax was notified to HMRC, including options that have been excluded or disapplied. Businesses must provide property addresses, Land Registry title numbers, purchase dates, previous owner VAT registration numbers, sale dates and values, and purchaser details including any revocations of option to tax.

Businesses should gather documentation for all opted properties before initiating VAT deregistration. For properties already disposed of, correct VAT treatment must be confirmed and any VAT due declared on the appropriate return. Submissions are made via the Government Gateway service, with a bulk template available for five or more properties. Businesses retaining opted properties should note that VAT may become chargeable on future supplies or disposals after deregistration.

What to do next

Compile property addresses, Land Registry title numbers, and purchase dates for all opted properties
Gather previous owner VAT registration numbers, sale dates, and sale values for disposed properties
Submit option to tax information through the Government Gateway service when completing VAT deregistration

Source document (simplified)

Guidance

Tell HMRC about an option to tax on property as part of cancelling your VAT registration

How to tell HMRC about an option to tax on land and buildings as part of cancelling your VAT registration.

From: HM Revenue & Customs Published 31 March 2026 Get emails about this page Print this page

Before you start

If you’ve told HMRC that you’ve opted to charge VAT on land or buildings (known as an ‘option to tax’), you’ll need to tell us about this as part of cancelling your VAT registration, as this could impact on your final tax liability.

This includes information about any options to tax which have been previously excluded or disapplied. Read Opting to tax land and buildings (VAT Notice 742A) for more information.

You must submit this information if you have previously told HMRC about an option to tax on any property you have owned or still own when cancelling your VAT registration. This will help us to process your request quickly and correctly.

If you have already disposed of any land or buildings

If you have disposed of any land or buildings on which you held an option to tax, you need to make sure that the correct VAT treatment has been applied to those supplies before you cancel your VAT registration.

If VAT is due, it should be declared on the appropriate VAT return.

If you have retained an opted property, VAT may still become chargeable if either:

after your registration is cancelled, you make further supplies of an interest in the property
you dispose of the property at a later date without the option to tax having been revoked Read section 8 of VAT Notice 742A more information.

What you need

You must tell us details of all properties which you have opted to tax including the:

property address
land registry title number (if known)
date the property was purchased
You must also provide details of the previous owner including:
their VAT registration number (if known)
the date the property was sold or disposed of
the value or sale price of the property
We also need details of the purchaser including:
their VAT registration number
the date any option to tax was revoked if this happened before deregistering from VAT

Submit information to HMRC

You’ll need to sign in with your Government Gateway user ID and password. If you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you first try to sign in.

If you’re an insolvency practitioner, sign in using your email address.

If you would like a record of your submission, you’ll need to save or print as a PDF when you are on the final submission page. You will not get a chance to do this after you leave the submission page.

Start now

If you have 5 or more properties

If you need to submit information for 5 or more properties, you can use a template in the service. This way you can submit all of the information at the same time.