If you’re a normal VAT-registered business, you have eight opportunities a year to screw up and fall foul of HMRC’s VAT penalty regime. You’ve four returns to submit, and four payments to make. Being late with any of those eight tasks risks a penalty, or accumulating points that eventually lead to a penalty.
If you sign up to make payments by direct debit, you only have four opportunities to screw up, because you then only have to submit the returns - the VAT is automatically collected by HMRC. The system has always been rock solid. It’s also better in other ways too - the VAT is automatically taken at the very last minute and you don’t have to worry about getting the right account number and reference from the multiple options that you’ve probably got available in your online banking.
It’s a really easy win and only takes a couple of minutes to set up. Do it now!