do i need to charge my customer vat in order to claim vat back?

[belindalat]

hi i just started my new business to sell on ebay. i bought things from tailand. the uk custom charged me VAT. im VAT registered.

am now just wondering do i need to charge my customer VAT in order to claim vat back?

becoz i did a calculation that if i charge my customer VAT i would actually be worse off...

i have a friend who buy things from uk supplier and being charged VAT, and then he sell things to korea and never charge VAT to his koearn customer. so he claimed back VAT every quarter...

can this apply to me? that means if i dont charge VAT to my customer, so i can claim the VAT back?

sorry i really dont know whether i need to charge my customer or not in order to claim back VAT ... please help! thx...

 

[gouldie0]

Hi Belinda,

If your business is VAT registered and selling VATable products / services within the UK then you must account for VAT on your sales invoice.

Did you look into this before you decided to register your business for VAT?

Kind Regards

Neil

 

[Leo-InstallingIT]

Where are your customers based? Are they in the UK?

Many Thanks

Leo

 

[belindalat]

Hi Belinda,

If your business is VAT registered and selling VATable products / services within the UK then you must account for VAT on your sales invoice.

Did you look into this before you decided to register your business for VAT?

Kind Regards

Neil

em...i only registered for VAT becoz i thought i could claim it back... so you mean that i HAVE to charge my customer VAT? if so, i really will be worse off!! can i de-register?? thx!

 

[belindalat]

Where are your customers based? Are they in the UK?

Many Thanks

Leo

yes custoemrs are based in t he uk. it's just the suppliers are bassed in tailand. thx

 

[Leo-InstallingIT]

In which case you will have to charge your customers VAT. I will leave the de-registering question to the professionals.

Many Thanks

Leo

 

[belindalat]

it seems like i really being misled by my friend who is buying from uk and sell to korea in which case he calimed VAT back...that saved him a lot of money...

but for me...oh no

 

[belindalat]

In which case you will have to charge your customers VAT. I will leave the de-registering question to the professionals.

Many Thanks

Leo

thx for your answer Leo.

if i cannot de-register the VAT...it seems i have to find another way to earn it back...shoot...

 

[David Richards]

it seems like i really being misled by my friend who is buying from uk and sell to korea in which case he calimed VAT back...that saved him a lot of money...(

Well they are two completely different scenarios. Every business is different and the decision to voluntarily register for VAT depends on the individual circumstances of a business.

As noted above, you can't pick and choose when it comes to VAT - if the goods are standard rated you have to charge VAT on all your UK sales.

More bad news I'm afraid. You have to account for VAT on all of your sales since you became VAT-registered. You can try asking your customers to pay the extra VAT. If they are VAT-registered, they can claim it back so they might pay up; if they're not VAT-registered they'll probably tell you where to go. If you can't get the VAT back from your customers, you will have to pay it out of your own pocket.

What it means is for every £100 of sales, you'll have to pay almost £15 over to HMRC.

 

[gouldie0]

it seems like i really being misled by my friend who is buying from uk and sell to korea in which case he calimed VAT back...that saved him a lot of money...

but for me...oh no

Hi Belinda,

This highlights how important it is to get professional advice when starting a business, just because it worked for your friend doesn't necessarily mean it'll work for you.

Here is a link to HMRC which will assist you in de-registering your business.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/change/index.htm

Kind Regards

Neil

 

[belindalat]

Hi Belinda,

This highlights how important it is to get professional advice when starting a business, just because it worked for your friend doesn't necessarily mean it'll work for you.

Here is a link to HMRC which will assist you in de-registering your business.



Kind Regards

Neil

yes i learned my lesson. thank you for your help!