VAT RISK REVIEWS: YOUR VAT RETURN MAY BE CORRECT. BUT IS THE PROCESS BEHIND IT? Clone

VAT SAVINGS REVIEWS: WHERE COULD YOUR BUSINESS BE MISSING OPPORTUNITIES?

Published: 19 October 2026

Author: Tender Da Gama

Reading Time: 5 minutes

When businesses hear the term VAT savings, the immediate assumption may be that there is a tax strategy that will reduce the VAT payable.

In practice, VAT savings reviews can be much more practical.

The opportunity may sit in the way transactions are processed.

Start with the process

Consider a business processing thousands of transactions every month.

A small recurring VAT error can become significant over time.

Potential areas of review may include:

Input VAT recovery

VAT coding

Supplier invoices

Recurring expenses

Intercompany transactions

Imported services

Mixed-use expenditure

Credit notes

Documentation

Reconciliations

The question is not simply:

“Can we claim more VAT?”

It is:

“Are we consistently applying the correct VAT treatment throughout the business?”

Where opportunities can arise

A VAT review may identify situations where:

input VAT was not claimed;

transactions were coded incorrectly;

different departments applied different VAT treatments;

supporting documentation was incomplete;

a recurring transaction was misunderstood; or

the business's processes have not kept pace with changes in its activities.

These are not necessarily “tax planning” issues.

They are often process and governance issues.

Review the business, not just the VAT return

A useful VAT savings review should consider the relationship between:

Commercial activity → accounting treatment → VAT treatment → documentation → VAT return

That is where recurring opportunities and risks can become visible.

The importance of independent review

Finance teams are often focused on getting the next VAT return completed.

That is understandable.

But it can make it difficult to step back and ask:

“Could we be doing this differently?”

An independent VAT review can provide that perspective.

The question worth asking

When did your business last review its VAT processes specifically to identify opportunities for improvement?

Not because SARS asked.

Not because an audit is underway.

But simply because the business wanted to know whether its VAT processes were operating as efficiently and accurately as possible.

Sometimes the most valuable VAT review is the one performed before there is a problem.

TCS Advisory & Compliance provides practical VAT and tax review support to businesses across a range of industries.