I have recently been cleaning up some paperwork for a company which is run from home. They are registered with BT as residential and as such the bill does not have a VAT number on it (although we all know that in itself is illegal).
I know we can request for the future bills to have the VAT number on, so we can reclaim the VAT; although looking at the BT forum this is an arduous task.
My question is this: we all know BT is registered for VAT and VAT has been charged on the bill (although the actual calculation is not shown), has anyone had any problems from HMRC over claiming the VAT on a BT bill which does not have the registration number on? My colleague has previously incuded these on her VAT returns (cash accounting). Incidentally we are talking less than £5 per month claim, only 30% of the total bill is for business use.
Your views on me potentially doing something I know to be wrong would be appreciated!
Many thanks
Mandy
Croft Administration
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Mandy Whitfield
Croft Administration
VA & Bookkeeping Service
We have a BT account and I just post the relevant vat through, although in our case they do send vat invoices. I have never even looked for a vat number as I have just assumed that they will be vat registered. I would say don't worry about the vat number however you should have a vat invoice to reclaim vat.
VAT number is on the back of the summary and details page.
There's the company number then directly under that is their registration number.
All of my clients VAT registered and not receive the same format bill and it's always been there.
Hope that helps,
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
As a matter of interest, how are you printing the bill? just a screen shot or print of the first page or actually requesting a full printed copy as you may find the latter more in the traditional form with the VAT number right at the very end.
The VAT number doesn't appear at all on the front page that you might be printing that shows the VAT and inclusive and exclusive figures.
Just a suggestion but I thought worth mentioning,
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Thanks for the suggestion; this is a recognised problem, there are lots of discussions about the rights/wrongs of BT not showing the VAT number I just wonder if HMRC really would haul me over the coals if I ignored what had been reclaimed previously, which incidentally their accountants seems to have done over the years. I know the chances of HMRC picking this up is slim, but I do not want it to be questioned (by my client) why I am making such a fundamental error as reclaiming VAT when there is no VAT invoice. By client of course is more than happy for me to ignore this, until Mr VATman comes knocking at her door!
Someone has suggested that it is against BT T&C's to use a home phone for business use and someone else has suggested that BT (and anyone else for that matter) do not have to supply a VAT invoice if the recipient is not registered for VAT (as technically is the case here, being residential). Personally I find both of these statements dubious; (1) what if you need to phone in work sick, technically a work matter and (2) surely the supplier needs to know the VAT they are charging to declare so why would you not put it on your customers invoice? The second point of course raises the point of why do BT not show it on all regardless, presumably there are two calculations going on in the background, one of them being unnecessary as all invoices from BT are subject to VAT? The law used to state that if a VAT number was not show then you did not have to pay VAT.
I just wondered if anyone had experienced any problems with HMRC over this?
I will explain to the client and she can make up her mind if she wants me to adjust the previous returns (she does have an accountant and I am only the bookkeeper!)
thanks again,
Mandy
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Mandy Whitfield
Croft Administration
VA & Bookkeeping Service
First time that I've tried to merge two threads so hope that I got it right.
I'm getting the impression that there was some problem with the site yesterday as it was not just new posters that were double or triple posting threads.
I've not seen the problem repeated today so fingers crossed it was just a one day glitch.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
