I have a friend of my mom for whom I do her books for as a copy typist, however, she is a FE teacher in a previous working life - she has now decided to "double up" and also do some self-employed training.
her services as a copy typist has income of well below the VAT threshold, but she is concerned about adding another string to her bow.
if she "tips" over the threshold in total will she need to register both businesses with the HMRC VAT office or if both businesses separately are each under the limit will she need to register at all ? She plans on offering her training on both a classroom delivery basis and also by home study - will it then further complicate the issue if she places her materials in an A4 ring binder / on a CD-rom / or as an internet download ?
Assuming your client will be running the two businesses as a sole-trader, the sales in both those businesses will normally need to be added together to determine whether or not she will have to register for VAT.
Books are zero rated for VAT. The material she prints to accompany the taught course could be classified as an educational text, which is treated the same as a book for VAT purposes. If these are in a question and answer format, they are VAT zero-rated because the spaces provided for the insertion of answers are incidental to the essential character of the book or text. I believe the CD Rom and Internet downloads would be standard rated at 17.5%. Placing a sales value on this material would be down to your client, and she would need to separate the items on her invoice.
many thanks - this was my gut feeling but it's great to have it confirmed - the HMRC were less than helpful and just refered me to a couple of their publications !!
