Companies could face complexities and errors following the announcement this week by the chancellor to cut VAT rates from 17.5% to 15.0%. For some organisations, making the change centrally will be quite straightforward, says Protoviti, a provider of internal audit services. However, for many, it will not be as simple as changing a single rate. There is a range of considerations, including supply chain, accounting timings of purchases and sales, decisions on pricing of goods and invoicing, aside from the related IT issues. The firm says that due to the widespread use of embedded VAT values of 17.5% in IT systems, and spreadsheets in particular, organisations across the UK are expected to struggle to understand the full impact of incorporating this adjustment, especially in such a short period of time. Ewan Ferguson, associate director at Protoviti, said: 'To check and amend every system and spreadsheet could be a massive and expensive task, and may cause an unforeseen impact to year to date data,'