Am I required to notify HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) about leased vehicles that are brought into the UK?
If a VAT registered business has obtained a vehicle under leasing arrangements from a VAT registered supplier within the EU, where the lease includes an option to purchase the vehicle, for example, lease purchase/hire purchase arrangements, you can notify this using the NOVA online service. For VAT purposes, this is treated as a supply of goods and acquisition VAT will be due (in Box 2 of your VAT return).
However, if the leasing arrangements do not have an option to purchase the vehicle, for example, standard rental/hire contracts this is a supply of services and VAT must be accounted for under the reverse charges rules (in Box 1 of your VAT return). Vehicles obtained under these arrangements cannot be notified using the NOVA online service and you will need to notify HMRC on paper using Form NOVA 1.
You can ask for a NOVA 1 form to be sent to you by ringing the HMRC VAT Helpline.
From the 1 January 2021 this will only apply to imports into Northern Ireland
