VAT information

[Adrian Taylor]

Hi all,

I am a small start up and about to submit VAT registration (voluntary).

With VAT (input) I am aware I need to keep receipts of everything (invoices, receipts etc.) but is that all the information I need? Or do I need to be scribbling in VAT reg numbers etc. for everything I buy?

Best regards

[askm]

Hi Adrian,

Have a look on HMRC's website here (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/reclaiming/index.htm) for what you can and can't reclaim input VAT on.

A good rule of thumb is that if the receipt or invoice that you get from your supplier has their VAT number printed on it, you can claim input VAT on that purchase. So no, you don't need to write their VAT number (or yours) on the receipt/invoice.

But... tax is never easy and there are always exceptions!

You can't claim input VAT on the cost of entertaining anyone other than your employees. So that rules out claiming VAT on the cost of a pub meal with a client, a supplier, even a subcontractor.

You can't claim input VAT on the full cost of petrol/diesel for your car/van, unless you pay the fuel scale charge in output VAT.

And watch out for "mixed" receipts that have some items with VAT and some without. For example, if you're running a restaurant or a pub, and you buy food and cleaning materials from the supermarket, the food will be zero-rated and the cleaning materials will have VAT on them.

Complicated eh.

I guess from the fact you're asking this question here, that you don't yet have an accountant. If you work from home, and would like a FREE no-obligation chat about how I could help you further, please feel free to DM me.

Kind regards,

Emily

[Jaydee]

If you work from home, and would like a FREE no-obligation chat about how I could help you further, please feel free to DM me.

What if he works from an office :|

[askm]

I'm setting up a new accountancy practice and am targeting the niche of home-based businesses.

So if it's an office at home (i.e. spare bedroom / study / shed / kitchen table / converted dining room) then that's fine!

M

[Jaydee]

Excellent idea to have a niche and a specialism - but odd for it to be so exclusive that it is at the detriment of other set-ups.

If one of your home-based clients moves into serviced offices, you will have to resign!

I agree entirely with accounting professionals not working beyond their skill-set or their comfort zone - but surely your work would be pretty much identical wherever Adrian traded from.

[askm]

If one of your home-based clients moves into serviced offices, you will have to resign!

With all due respect - who said?? :|

If I liked the client and they liked me, and their business hadn't got so big that I couldn't help them, what's to stop me carrying on working for them if they moved to a serviced office? That'll be for the client and for me to decide if and when it happens :-)

M