Vat.

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ringway

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Is it legal for a company to charge a private individual say £200 including VAT for a product, but charge a VAT registered individual or company £200 plus VAT for exactly the same product?

TIA.


Paul.
 
A person or corporate entity is perfectly legally entitled to charge what it likes for whatever it likes. With or without VAT.

Whether you, the punter, choose to accept those terms is entirely up to said punter.

If it was me, and the two quotes came up in the same conversation, I would question why the net price offered wasn't lower to take account of the VAT.
 
If it was me, and the two quotes came up in the same conversation, I would question why the net price offered wasn't lower to take account of the VAT.

That is my point.

I requested the service of a well known and often criticised German motor manufacturer as yours truly. My company was then invoiced "Plus VAT" (they tied in my company from my reg number). I'll claim back the VAT so no harm done I suppose.

Separate thread about the service coming soon though. :mad:
 
That is my point.

I requested the service of a well known and often criticised German motor manufacturer as yours truly. My company was then invoiced "Plus VAT" (they tied in my company from my reg number). I'll claim back the VAT so no harm done I suppose.

Separate thread about the service coming soon though. :mad:

You keep promising.....

I've seen this a few times and it never fails to piss me off.

Van hire place tried to charge VAT because I paid with my business debit card.

Insurance company wanted to charge me the VAT on my windscreen. It's an irrecoverable loss to me, as I am on a Flat Rate scheme so cannot recover from outputs unless over £2k. Again they backed down.
 
That is my point.

I requested the service of a well known and often criticised German motor manufacturer as yours truly. My company was then invoiced "Plus VAT" (they tied in my company from my reg number). I'll claim back the VAT so no harm done I suppose.

That's better for you as the dealer would have charged Vat anyway even to an individual. The price they quote is Ex-vat.
 
I once bought a printer from PC World paying by company debit card. I asked for a vat receipt and the actual price of the printer including vat came to circa £97.50 and the rest was a card handling charge. So I couldn't claim the 17.5% vat off the original £100 cost.
 
Quite common with mobile phone companies. £25 a month inc VAT for private individual and £25 plus Vat for business.
 
That's better for you as the dealer would have charged Vat anyway even to an individual. The price they quote is Ex-vat.

It still makes a difference though - although not much in £ terms it's true.

If Ringway had a VAT invoice for the £200 inclusive of the VAT, as per the original quote, he could still run that through his expenses and the company still recover the VAT. But the net cost to the company is less - £166.67 as opposed to £200.00.
 
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It still makes a difference though - although not much in £ terms it's true.

If Ringway had a VAT invoice for the £200 inclusive of the VAT, he can still run that through his expenses and the company still recovers the VAT. But the net cost is less.
I think the nett figure would be the same, the dealer quotes the nett figure.
 
I once bought a printer from PC World paying by company debit card. I asked for a vat receipt and the actual price of the printer including vat came to circa £97.50 and the rest was a card handling charge. So I couldn't claim the 17.5% vat off the original £100 cost.

Quite a lot of retailers do something like that x% is paid to xyz Limited Card Services Ltd or xyz Processing Ltd.
 
Basically what they've done is given a 16.5% discount on the base price of £200
 
I once bought a printer from PC World paying by company debit card. I asked for a vat receipt and the actual price of the printer including vat came to circa £97.50 and the rest was a card handling charge. So I couldn't claim the 17.5% vat off the original £100 cost.


PC World have the most bizarre till system in the UK... I often buy from them.

Strangely, a VAT receipt is not issued as standard (a valid VAT receipt must show - separately - the amount of tax paid, and the VAT Reg Number).

If you say you are a business and ask for a VAT receipt, they tick a tickbox on the till but all it does is show the VAT Registration Number on the receipt - not the amount of tax paid. This is not valid for VAT reclaims!

But they are aware of this - and they also know that the only till that can actually produce a legal VAT receipt is the one in Retunes, Customer Services.

So the standard procedure for me is to buy the product, pay at the till, then go straight to Customer Services, return it for a refund, and re-purchase it from Customer Services (effectively is a 'replacement' though it's the same item). A legal VAT receipt will then be issued showing the tax amount and the VAT Registration Number.

Odd but true. Luckily Customer Services are used to it, so do this as a matter of course and don't ask too many time-wasting questions.

I think the problem is that their high-street shops sell mainly retail to consumers so not really geared-up to sell to businesses.
 
As for your original question.. as others said, it is legal in the sense that as long as the amount you paid included 20% for the vatman, it does not matter what they seller charges you. But such practices could be an issue worth referring to for Trading Standards, though.
 
Strangely, a VAT receipt is not issued as standard (a valid VAT receipt must show - separately - the amount of tax paid, and the VAT Reg Number).

If you say you are a business and ask for a VAT receipt, they tick a tickbox on the till but all it does is show the VAT Registration Number on the receipt - not the amount of tax paid. This is not valid for VAT reclaims!

Yes it is.

Simplified VAT invoices

If you make retail sales and you make a sale of goods or services for £250 or less including VAT, then when a customer asks for a VAT invoice, you can issue a simplified VAT invoice that only needs to show:

the seller's name and address
the seller's VAT registration number
the time of supply (tax point)
a description of the goods or services

Also, if the supply includes items at different VAT rates then for each different VAT rate, your simplified VAT invoice must also show:

the total price including VAT
the VAT rate applicable to the item

If you accept credit cards, then you can create a less detailed invoice by adapting the sales voucher you give the cardholder when you make the sale. It must show the information described in the six bullets above

You do need to keep copies of any less detailed invoices you issue.
 
I reclaim VAT on invoices which do not show the specific amount of VAT charged.

All I do is write on the side of the invoice in ink what I calculate as the net cost, the VAT element, and the total, which then matches the invoice total. As long as the VAT number of the seller is shown, that is all that is required, as I have been told by my accountants.

This usually only applies to things like restaurant bills and other relatively small value invoices, as DM states above.
 

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