Vat

First time poster so apologies if this is in the wrong area.

I'm relatively new to charging VAT to customers. With the increase which happened 1st December, if I invoice a customer today, but put 30th November 2008 on the invoice, can I charge the old, lower VAT rate?

Or will the customer have to pay the higher VAT rate given that they will be paying it after the increase happened?

Thanks.

Yes, you should charge 21% VAT if you date the invoice November 2008 to keep your books in order. His accounts are his business not yours so you should not worry about his side of it. Presumably, he will reclaim the VAT element in your invoice regardless of whether it is 21% or 21.5%. Hope this helps!

The invoice date will determine the VAT rate but it is more generally the date on which the goods or services were supplied to the customer. Using another date, by back-dating or forward-dating the invoice is wrong and could leave you open to prosecution for fraud and false accounting.

Are we discussing tax fraud here?

Yes, sorry I probably wasn't very clear. I have the invoice done up since last week, I just forgot to put it in the post on Friday. The work is for '07 -'08 prior to December so I suppose I'm safe enough leaving 21% on it. Thanks.

smithyyjj said:

Yes, sorry I probably wasn't very clear. I have the invoice done up since last week, I just forgot to put it in the post on Friday. The work is for '07 -'08 prior to December so I suppose I'm safe enough leaving 21% on it. Thanks.

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Yes, but dont push it.....i.e. dont post all your invoices for the while as being 30th November.

The tax point rules are quite specific:

Supplies made to Non VAT registered business - the VAT due date is when the supply is completed
Supplies made to VAT reg business - the due date is the earlier of the time the supply is completed or when the invoice is issued or should have been issued

I think the revenue interpretation is quite clear

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