Blog / VAT
VAT for UK businesses: registration, schemes and reclaims
VAT registration thresholds, the flat rate scheme, reclaiming VAT and overseas clients, explained for UK business owners by Simon Jacobs, Chartered Tax Adviser.
Do you need to register for VAT if you sell gold bullion and jewellery?
Not always. Investment gold is exempt from VAT, and exempt sales do not count towards the £90,000 registration threshold, so a business turning over £100,000 can still be below it.
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Do you have to register for VAT if you go over £90,000?
Not always. If your taxable turnover went over £90,000 only temporarily, you can apply to HMRC for an exception from registration. If HMRC refuses, it will register you for VAT.
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Do exempt sales count towards the VAT threshold?
No. The £90,000 VAT registration threshold is tested against taxable turnover, which leaves out exempt sales. Zero-rated and reduced-rated sales are taxable, so they do count.
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VAT when your agency has overseas clients
Do you put VAT on an invoice to a client in the US or the EU? For most agency services the answer turns on where your client belongs, not where you are.
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Can you reclaim the VAT on your agency's laptops, cameras and chairs?
If your agency is VAT registered, the VAT on business equipment is usually recoverable. Private use and the Flat Rate Scheme are the two things that cut the claim down.
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The VAT Flat Rate Scheme: worth it for an agency, or not?
If your agency is VAT registered but your VATable costs are minimal, the Flat Rate Scheme can leave cash in the business. If you are caught by the limited cost business rules, it does the opposite.
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Can you claim back VAT from before you were VAT registered?
Not while you are unregistered. But once you register, VAT on goods you still hold can go back four years and VAT on services six months, with some costs blocked either way.
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VAT for agencies: where the money quietly leaks
VAT rarely gets founders excited, but the wrong scheme or a missed recharge quietly costs agencies real money every quarter.
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