[Jongseong]

I see. This is a scheme you can apply for once you are VAT registered and are up to date with your VAT returns. I'm not sure how that changes things for first-time VAT registered businesses. For businesses that have not been registered for 12 months or more (i.e. everyone who is applying for the first time), they can still apply but HMRC will advise the amount of the instalments to be paid (monthly by default, quarterly also available) which are usually supposed to be estimated based on the last year's liability. I'd be curious to see how HMRC will react to getting applications for the VAT Annual Accounting Scheme from all the first-time VAT registrants with very little to base their VAT estimates on, but that wouldn't happen unless all these self-employed people had any idea that the scheme existed.