Approved Grants
Unfortunately, where a grant has already been awarded, we are not able to increase the amount of the award. However, we are willing to work with you to mitigate the effects of any VAT rises if we can:
Please work out the size of the “problem”. When doing so, it might be worth considering the following questions. You may feel that it is not worth taking any further action anyway.
- Will the VAT increase change the total cost of your project? Consider here whether you can reclaim any VAT or are exempt from paying it.
- Have you enough funding to cover any increase in cost?
- Is there any way that you can bring the project (or elements of it) forward to avoid paying additional VAT?
Contracted Grants
If your project is contracted you will have a Schedule 1 within your Funding Offer (contract) which details how and when your project will be delivered. You may wish to review the milestones and consider whether the VATable expenditure can be brought forward. We are happy to consider all reasonable requests to reschedule milestones, but this will need to be completed by 30 September. Please contact your Grant Manager to discuss this further.
Uncontracted Grants
You may have already started discussing with your Grant Manger the likely dates when you expect your project will be delivered. You might now wish to consider revising your project plan to see if your project can be contracted and any VATable expenditure incurred during this calendar year, without unreasonably compromising the project.
It is important you discuss this with your Grant Manager first. Please remember you must not start any of the work you are expecting us to pay for until you have a signed Funding Offer (contract) from us.
Applied but do not yet have a decision
If you have applied to us for a grant but have not yet received a final decision, we do not expect you to adjust your project costs at this stage to take into account additional VAT.
If you are awarded a grant, we will ask you to review your application and project costs. We may be prepared, where necessary, to increase our grant to take into account any increases to your total project costs in light of the VAT rate change. We can do this because we will make some allowance for increased costs when we make our awards.
Thinking of Applying?
You may be considering applying to one of our grant programmes. If you are successful, it is most likely your project will start after the VAT increase applies. Therefore, please remember to include VAT at 20% rather than 17.5% in your calculations.
It is important you are aware that we are not able to adjust the amount once we have awarded a grant. It is therefore important you submit the correct figures in your application to take into account the rise in VAT.
Please contact GrantScape’s office on 01908 247630 to discuss any of the above in more detail.
