Question about VAT Registration

Associate
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Can someone give me some advice please?

I am thinking about doing some trading on a certain well know auction site as a second income. It won't be anything fantastic, maybe a couple of hundred quid a month hopefully. I have found a wholesale supplier who have asked me to fill in an account qualification form. On the form it is asking for a VAT Registration number. To do what I am hoping to do, will I have to be VAT registered for this supplier to sell to me? From what I gather I think you have to have an income of a certain amount (50K springs to mind) before you need to register

Any help appreciated :)
 
Wise Guy
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Stoddy said:
Can someone give me some advice please?

I am thinking about doing some trading on a certain well know auction site as a second income. It won't be anything fantastic, maybe a couple of hundred quid a month hopefully. I have found a wholesale supplier who have asked me to fill in an account qualification form. On the form it is asking for a VAT Registration number. To do what I am hoping to do, will I have to be VAT registered for this supplier to sell to me? From what I gather I think you have to have an income of a certain amount (50K springs to mind) before you need to register

Any help appreciated :)
You should not need to be VAT registered for a supplier to sell to you, but trade suppliers have their own registration criteria for determing if they will open an account.

If you're talking of a couple of hundred quid a month, I very much doubt that the hassle of VAT will be worth it to you, though there are reasons for registering when you don't have to.

The £50k limit (it's a bit above that) is when you MUST register, but that doesn't mean you can't apply if you're way below that.

Talk to the supplier about opening the account. There's no legal reason for them to require you to be registered, but it may be their trading policy.

Oh, and I assume that "couple of hundred" refers to sales, not profit. If it's profit, whether you need to register will depend on your margin, as it's based on £50k (ish) of taxable turnover, not your profit from it.
 
Soldato
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It depends what you are dealing in.
If you are dealing in items (like computer componants) that have £20 or £30 worth of VAT on top, its worth while doing.
 
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atpbx said:
It depends what you are dealing in.
If you are dealing in items (like computer componants) that have £20 or £30 worth of VAT on top, its worth while doing.

Why would it?

If he goes vat registered then yes he could reclaim the VAT on purchases, BUT he would also have to Pay VAT on his Sales. Assuming a margin is acheived then the net result is a payment of VAT on his margin and passing that VAT along to the ultimate consumer.

M@rt
 
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On the form you should put 'PR' instead of your TURN / or VAT number.

The threashold for VAT registration is 62.5K in most cases, although phone the Customs National Advice Service on 0845 010 9000 to double make sure.

Its been a while since I have worked in VAT so phone NAS as I wouldn't want you to do something that would contravene any public notice.


Edit; sorry PR stands for Private Registration and is used by customs on Warehouse removals, Import SADs etc
 
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