Vat killing me!

[Mark Bolam]

I can see every side of the argument.

0k is better than £20k.

Unless you're pretty gifted on the books you're going to need a professional to do quarterly VAT returns, and along with your income tax etc. you'll drop a grand easy.

10% would be nice, but so would shagging Cameron Diaz, and that won't be happening either.

The current threshold is a big hurdle for a small company in arb.

I'm lucky in that I'm basically part-time with childcare, and a wife with a good job.

If you are small and do 5 days a week at even £400, with a month off in the year you're on £96k, well over the threshold.

Fukkit, take 2 months off you're still on £88k!

That's for a one man and his dog setup like mine.

I need to keep legit to boost my pathetic end of year profit, but Im guessing that plenty don't.

I'm not knocking it, everyone loves a £50 cashy overhanging a beer garden on the way home, but don't rant on at me here. You never know who's watching.....

 

SEMTEX BOMB C4 MOSQUE DETONATION ANAL HELICOPTER SPEEDING EVASION ROCKET

[Tom D]

The government don't make it easy to grow a business that's for sure, the vat threshold is the first hurdle, we've now hit another hurdle where I don't have any more time to manage everything. I started out part time, my wife had a good job and I spent a lot of time renovating our house, just using subbed as required. It was hard to get past the threshold by much, turnover was less than 100k for a few years. Then we suddenly lept forwards to the 150-200 mark and that was good. Now we have stagnated again at the 350-400 mark and we need to make some changes to move on again.

YOu need to run the business that works for you, you can do quite nicely under the threshold if you are smart but there's a lot of guys busting their balls and still at or around the threshold, that's no fun... Likewise it's no fun turning over 300k if you have no free time and lots of headaches.

We are about to go paperless with a new quoting and accounting system in the hope that it will free up a lot more time... Maybe it will.

[Mark Bolam]

Good post Tom.

Arb is a great lifestyle choice, which is a shame really, because when you chuck in wife, kids and a mortgage it's a really bad one.

[Tom D]

Good post Tom.

Arb is a great lifestyle choice, which is a shame really, because when you chuck in wife, kids and a mortgage it's a really bad one.

 

Makes me smile thinking back 10 years, I'd work 2 or 3 days a week, work on the house a bit, go fishing , chill out. Then the kids came along. Haven't fished in a couple of years, and it's been months since I went out with the rifle.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Posts 121-124 have just cracked me up!

 

Last couple of years can be loosely summed up as being happy with 1 or 2 jobs a week, quoting high and only for the jobs I fancied, ignoring calls from people that looked "odd" or didn't provide foot massage & ice cream mid afternoon, preferential rates for jobs that were particularly interesting/challenging or Cameron Diaz. 2 days a week childcare and any free time spent working on the house.

 

Things went a bit nuts last 12 months, jobs backing up, sleepless nights worrying about how to get it all done, grumpy with the Mrs (more grumpy than usual), starting to feel old and tired and loosing some of the passion for being up a tree.

 

Whilst the cash (turn of phrase rather than bundles of folding money under the mattress now that every government agency from DWP, MI5, HMRC, VOSA, trading standards, DEFRA, GCHQ, Natoional Probation Service have picked up on the keywords, by the way, if you are looking in David Lawson from HMRC, be sure to check your car thoroughly you ......) has been nice, the hassle has been a hassle.

 

VaT Reg is the next admin task to get done.....

[Brad1]

I'd try to go upmarket, where people want a better job done rather than worrying so much about the price.

 

Where are you located? It does depend on the area somewhat.

 

Your image needs to start with your website and marketing materials. Give the impression of a quality company and target businesses too. In the medium-term you'll create a more profitable business, I'm sure.

 

Hope that helps.

Edited April 26, 2016 by Brad1

[winchman]

I don't know the legality of it but some one I use runs two businesses, one Vat registered the other not so little non vat people like me don't pay vat you just get a different company name at the same address.

[treequip]

I don't know the legality of it but some one I use runs two businesses, one Vat registered the other not so little non vat people like me don't pay vat you just get a different company name at the same address.

 

That's fine as long as the business aren't doing the same thing. HMCE take a dim view if they are

[richy_B]

VAT separation would be the correct term and illegal if, as treequip mentions, the business is fundamentally selling the same products/services, using the same tools or equipment, staff or vehicles. It can be correctly apportioned but let's be honest, most people do it as a tax dodge and at some point you'll get caught up. Why risk it - if you are about the VAT threshold then you have to collect VAT.

[onetruth]

if they reduced the threshold to something like 20k then it would remove this two tier business structure we seem to have developed. How absurd is it to constrain a company to remain competitive in the market place. Instead they should be allowed to flourish & hopefully employ more staff & pay better wages etc etc.

Better still, abolish VAT altogether and bring in the revenue through income tax instead. VAT is extremely regressive, hitting the poorest hardest. It's also expensive for the government to collect, stifles business growth, is too easy to dodge, and harms the internal market.

 

Edit:... I realise this post will be of absolutely no help to the op whatsoever. Sorry about that!

Edited September 23, 2016 by onetruth