VAT and registration for Sole trader

I am operating as a sole trader for 3 years now. So far my yearly turnover has not exceeded the 37.5k recommended by Revenue so I have not registered for VAT.

Over the past few months I have been working on a larger than normal project which will mean my turnover for 2012 will exceed the threshold level, good I know, but this may not be the case next year!

My question is,
1. Will I need to register for VAT for the whole of 2012 or for a particular 12 month period?
2. Can I de-register next year if turnover drops? As you can understand, some of my clients are private and cannot claim back VAT so therefore this is crucial for me re fee offer.
3. Will registering & de-registering cause problems with Revenue or this this common?

Any other suggestions?

Thank you

Turnover for VAT registration purposes is not confined to your accounting year. You are obliged to register for VAT when you are likely to exceed the turnover threshold within the next 12 months.

The registration is generally effective from the VAT period commencing the that in which you registered. So if you registered in September, you would become VAT registered as and from November. You can elect to have the registration effective from the current VAT period. There is also a provision to allow for back-dating if you should have registered before now but didn't.

If you look at your projected turnover for 12 months starting from the date you secured this once-off contract are you still likely to exceed the threshold?

You can de-register of the turnover drops back below the threshold. But if you are on the cusp, generally, it may not be adivisable as you could easily breach it again in which case you'd need to re-register.

Persistant registering, de-registering and re-registering may raise a few eyebrows.

A Sole trader with 35k ( Bed n breakfast business) ..ie under VAT threshhold
wants to Register a second new business ( a Civil engineering business)
n register same for vat..possible first year turnover 5k.

Does this mean that the first business is automatically liable for Vat ?