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VAT Registration levels.

I here that the government have plans to reduce the VAT registration level from its current level of £84,000 to £15,000 (or lower), which means that just about every business in the country will have to register and account for VAT.

The UK has the highest registration level in the EU, with most other countries having levels from $0 to $30,000, the Netherlands has a level of $1345, Germany $17,500, France $33,000, and several countries have a level set at $1. (one).

Do you think the UK VAT registration level should be set to a low level so that all businesses are on a level playing field?

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  • Yes, it’s a nice idea to have everyone on a level playing field, it may give many small sole traders the impetus to expand their business. But, I can imagine cash-in-hand work would go through the roof and plenty of work would be lost to those working in such a way, not to mention the loss of taxes because of undeclared earnings.

    It’s a difficult one!

    • It is a difficult one, I don't want to expand.

      I take a lot of cash but it all gets put through the books.

  • PRO

    https://ion.icaew.com/taxfaculty/b/weblog/posts/autumn-budget-2017-...

     

    not for the next two years at least!

    Autumn Budget 2017 – VAT announcements
    Today’s Budget contained a number of announcements about VAT.   To the relief of many businesses there will be no change to the VAT registration thre…
  • I think this came up a few months back where a report was published. We have a high threshold, but also a high rate of VAT. Ireland might be 13.5% of the top of my head for example. 

    Everyone is likely to comment yes / no to suit themselves. Having experienced it, it's quiet a jump to go from 0% to 20% if working in a domestic setting - I see that as the problem for an unconfident businessperson. 

    Personally I'd like to see this inforced with a lower VAT rate across the board, or two different VAT rates. Maybe one day we'll see a 10-12% <100k and 18-20% over 100k. With the availibility and advances in accounting software, this shouldn't be much more difficult for a smaller operation to mangage even if it were to be undesired. 

    • PRO

      That would be no better than now. If they just said everyone had to do it would break down the barrier in one hit. The public would be aware and it would become normal for the consumer to always foot the bill rather than the smallest business being the end of the chain. 

  • Im not VAt registered and have no plans to ever be either, as a soletrader im happy with my business as it stands, i dont want to expand.

    However, if it does end up dropping considerably, i think it should be tiered, as a smaller business, suddenly having to up prices by 20% would be very hard, 10% would be bad enough!

    And the level playing field is bo**ox frankly, save that argument for those putting 50k+ through the books and not those at the smaller end doing mainly small scale domestic work.

    This is no different to the waste issue, they keep putting the cost up and more and more people are fly tipping as a result, it's had exactly the opposite of the desired effect. I can understand its expensive to recycle etc, but i suspect it costs a lot more cleaning up after the fly tippers every year!

    Lower the vat threshold too much and the same thing will happen, more and more will just default to cash to avoid it!

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