Registering for VAT

B

bogota400

Registered User
Messages
47
I am embarking upon a part time business as of 1st of January. This is work I will undertake in my own time outside of my PAYE job.

Its not clear as yet to what extent this will work out. I had hoped just to do it and not register for VAT but given the nature of the service, It may leave me uncompetitive. Bit of an unknown at the moment, but theres a possibility I could hit the threshold.
Conversely, it could be a waste of time and I would know this fairly early on.

My question is this; If I register for VAT, is there much involved in submitting monthly VAT returns? Any guidelines on how to do this on the web? Or otherwise, is it a case of needing to utilise a bookkeeper?

Lastly, IF a couple of months into the year, I find that things are not going well and it suits me to do so, can I simply deregister for VAT?
 
You can easily de-register for VAT but you do need to be up-to-date with it all before they will officially de-register you. I was VAT registered and it proved to be a bit of hard work but I was only selling my skills and hence not many VAT sales. If you have lots of VAT to do (i.e you buy things and then sell things) then I would suggest getting a book keeper to do it. We give ours to our BK every 2 months and it costs about 200 euro for her to do them. As the nature of one of our businesses is buying and then selling we usually get more than the 200 back and hence it pays for itself and we get some extra.

I have a few businesses and I would run with it for the frist month or so and then check to see if you would be better off being VAT registered. Then you can simply register and start from there.
 
If you only have a few transactions when you start up it should be very easy to work out the VAT yourself.

The Revenue Online Service (ROS) is very easy to use once you have it set up.

Don't forget the VAT rate change in December if you go ahead.
 
I have found that de-registering was a less than straightforward process. Despite being up to date with all VAT returns the Revenue wanted to know why we wanted to de-register and why did we register in the first place. In the end they agreed to our request but only after an inspector visited.
 
Just dawned on me...if i stay unregistered and don't charge VAT, in the case of clients that are not registered for VAT, this will give me a competitive advantage over other service providers will it not?
 
bogota400 said:
Just dawned on me...if i stay unregistered and don't charge VAT, in the case of clients that are not registered for VAT, this will give me a competitive advantage over other service providers will it not?
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it might give you the ability to be cheaper than company who have to charge vat, but only when customer are not vat registered.

you charge 100 = non vat customer pays 100
competitor charges 100 + vat = non vat customer pays 121
 
The other problem is that VAT registered people won't want to do business with you unless you are registered.
 
Hi folks,
I have another question, If I am not registered for VAT, but got goods from China, which is out of EU, do I need to pay vat to the goods ?
Thanks
 
Nicky said:
Hi folks,
I have another question, If I am not registered for VAT, but got goods from China, which is out of EU, do I need to pay vat to the goods ?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Goods from outside the EU will be subject to VAT and duties depending on the relevant rates applicable to those types of goods. That VAT and duty then becomes part of the total cost to you of the goods.
 
bond-007 said:
The other problem is that VAT registered people won't want to do business with you unless you are registered.
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This shouldn't be a problem as they won't be paying any VAT on the transaction in the first place.
 
Believe me, it is a problem. Suppliers often won't deal with you unless you are registered. It don't matter to them that you are paying the VAT.
 
bond-007 said:
Believe me, it is a problem. Suppliers often won't deal with you unless you are registered.
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Is the problem one of perception only or is there a practical aspect to it?
bond-007 said:
It don't matter to them that you are paying the VAT.
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I'm only paying VAT on the miscellaneous items I will need to provide the service, right?

Service will be aimed at small scale property investors/landlords. Anyone care to guess how many of these will be VAT registered?
 
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