VAT

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Input tax on leased cars

9th August 2022
Your business leases cars for your employees, paying VAT on the monthly charges. But are you correctly claiming input tax and what happens if you return the vehicle before the end of the agreement? Or if you receive a rebate of your rental payments? VAT Expert John Craig explains. If the car has business and...

Travel expenses and VAT

4th July 2022
During routine checks, HMRC looks for mistakes which businesses commonly make. One such area is the VAT treatment of travel expenses. What should you check to ensure your VAT returns are correct? One error often made by businesses that provide professional services involves passing on their employees’ travel expenses to their customers. The following example...

Reclaiming hidden VAT

1st June 2022
You are planning improvements to your business premises; you will be using individual contractors for the work as they provided you with the best quotes. However, none of them is VAT registered which could mean you paying hidden VAT. Why and how can you reclaim it? Elaine Wight advises. With inflation rising, everyone is keen...

Charging VAT on a mixed-use property?

19th November 2021
You are in the process of leasing a property to a tenant who will use the ground floor for her retail business and the upper floor as living accommodation. Could opting to tax the property save you VAT? Supplies of property, e.g., letting, are normally exempt from VAT but opting to tax the property changes...
VAT on homeworking allowances

VAT on homeworking allowances?

7th September 2021
You are downsizing your office and have asked a few staff to permanently change to homeworking. You’ll pay them a one-off allowance towards the cost of setting up their home workspace. Can you reclaim the VAT they incur? VAT expert John Craig provides the answers. People often suggest that “putting it through the business” will...

Credit note or bad debt?

27th July 2021
A regular customer owes you a lot of money and has offered to pay half now if you agree to accept it as full payment for all outstanding invoices. But how do you deal with the bad debt? Our VAT expert John Craig explains in greater detail. The VAT rules are different according to whether...

Mixed use of a building and VAT

5th October 2020
You own a building that has a ground floor shop and a first floor flat, which you rent out. You opted to tax the property many years ago. But have you been dealing with the VAT correctly and can you save some tax in the future? John Craig provides the answers. Many landlords have opted...

VAT and Self Assessment Payment Extensions

24th September 2020
VAT It has been confirmed today that the payment of the suspended VAT quarter (the VAT quarter due in March to June 2020) which was previous due for repayment by end of March 2021 can now be repaid by way of 11 equal instalments over the tax year 2021/2022 in order to avoid businesses suffering...
Builders reverse charge delayed again

Builders reverse charge delayed again

10th August 2020
To help builders affected by the Coronavirus crisis, the new reverse charge rules for the construction industry has been pushed back to the 1st March 2021. What does the delay mean for your business? Elaine Wight finds out. HMRC has recognised that builders are already under enormous pressure as a result of the Coronavirus crisis....

Q&A – Can sales to account customers be excluded?

2nd March 2020
Q. Within my building supplies store, we account for VAT by using a point of sale retail scheme based on our daily gross takings figures. We have quite a lot of account customers who buy goods from the shop but don’t pay until 30 or 60 days later. We include the sale in the till...