When and how to write off an unpaid customer debt – recovery steps, approval limits, VAT bad debt relief, tax treatment, insolvency claims and a write-off approval form and register.
Finance & credit control
Bad Debt Write-Off Policy and Approval Form
About this document
Some customer debts will never be paid. Writing them off at the right time keeps the accounts accurate and allows the business to reclaim the VAT it paid over to HMRC on the sale, through VAT bad debt relief. This policy sets out the recovery steps that must be tried first, who can approve a write-off, and the records needed to support the VAT and tax claims.
The document is laid out in the sections below. Each one comes with a plain-English guidance note explaining what it does and what to change.
Our templates are professionally structured starting points for UK businesses, not legal advice. For anything complex, unusual or high-value, have your final version checked by a solicitor.
Included in the pack
Finance & credit control
for every document in this category
Editable Microsoft Word files
Guidance notes in every document
Written for UK businesses
Download and keep
Need more than one category?
Documents All-Access gives you every category for 12 months for £295.
Compare options →Need it tailored?
We can adapt any template to your business, or write a document from scratch.
Talk to us →
