Quick answer: A VAT invoice is a legal document that proves VAT was charged — it carries the supplier's VAT number, the rate applied and the VAT amount, and it is the primary evidence HMRC accepts for reclaiming input tax. A VAT receipt is proof that money was paid. A till receipt can double as […]
Read more →Quick answer: VAT on entertaining clients is blocked — you cannot reclaim it, however good the business reason. VAT on entertaining your own staff is usually recoverable, because HMRC treats staff parties, team-building days and outings as a business cost. The traps are the edges: entertainment for directors or partners on their own is not […]
Read more →Quick answer: In most cases you have four years to claim VAT back — but the four years run from different dates depending on what you are claiming. A late input tax claim must be made within four years of the due date of the VAT return for the period in which your right to […]
Read more →Quick answer: The VAT tax point — also called the time of supply — is the date HMRC treats a supply as taking place, and it decides which VAT return the VAT goes on and which rate applies. For goods it is normally the delivery date; for services, the date the work is finished. But […]
Read more →Quick answer: The place of supply is the country where a service is treated as supplied for VAT purposes — and that decides whether UK VAT is charged at all. For business customers (B2B) the supply is made where the customer belongs; for private consumers (B2C) it is made where the supplier belongs. Special rules […]
Read more →Quick answer: When you sell a business as a going concern — the whole business, or a part that can run on its own, to a buyer who will carry on the same kind of business — the sale is not a supply for VAT purposes and no VAT is charged. The rules in HMRC […]
Read more →Quick answer: Yes — if the trader is VAT-registered, VAT is normally charged on labour at the standard rate of 20%, exactly as it is on materials. Labour does not have its own VAT rate: it takes the rate of the job it belongs to. So labour on a routine repair is 20%, labour on […]
Read more →Quick answer: If you are VAT-registered, account for VAT when you invoice (not when you are paid), and a customer never pays, you can reclaim the VAT you already handed to HMRC — but only after the debt has been unpaid for at least 6 months from the later of the supply date and the […]
Read more →Quick answer: There is no single VAT rate for construction work — the rate depends on what is being built. Building a genuinely new house or flat is zero-rated (0%), qualifying conversions and renovations of homes empty for two years or more are reduced-rated (5%), and most other building work — repairs, maintenance and extensions […]
Read more →Quick answer: A sole trader pays VAT like any other business: you must register once your VAT taxable turnover passes £90,000 in a rolling 12-month period (or you expect to pass it in the next 30 days), and from your registration date you charge VAT on your sales and reclaim the VAT on your business […]
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