20%

[SteveD]

20% vat will be with us very soon , anyway  

i was working saturday morning   happily working away when the phone go's

me , hello winsford body shop

customer, its mr bloggs,you did an esimate on my car

m, yes i did

c, can i book it in please

m, no problem first week after xmas ok sir ,we can fit a small job in then other than that 24th of jan is the earliest date

c, will i have to pay 20% vat then and do i get a courtesy car  

m, yes it goes up the 1st of jan and yes you can have a c/car they are foc

c,i thought if i booked it in now it would be 17.5 %

m, no sir it does not work like that

c, well i think thats a bit unfair considering im booking it in now

m, yes but we will be doing the job 2011 so 20% vat ,if you want to pay for it now over the phone it will be 17.5% (not summat we do take money up front)

c,im not doing that ,you have not done the job yet

m, id didn't think you would want to pay for it now

,anyway its only an extra 2.5% on £269 which is what your jobs costing ,not an extra 20% because your paying 17.5% anyway this year so its only an extra 2.5% look at it that way

anyway this goes on for about 10 minutes   and we are getting nowhere ,i did feel like saying get some body else to do it then ,it was getting to that point ,i am full of flu and feel like s**t so was not in the mood , what is wrong with people its 2.5% we have to pay it just get on with it ,its not going to go away  

[RedditchJay]

muppets...... its not nice increase but its not a bank breaker.....

[Tigger]

Ya get screwed every which way you turn. Grrrr!

Better spend all my savings next week then LOL

[SteveD]

if he was paying say £1500 or summat i could understand it (well a bit more),but penny pinching really boils my p**s

[Matt Seabrook]

I'm glad I am not the only one that gets customers like this just sorry its you Steve.

[pistonbroke]

Here you go then  

might help

[JeffC]

could be worse you could be in car sales  ,  at least what you make isnt directly affected you are only collecting the extra 2.5% and giving it to the vatman , in carsales thats a instant paycut of 2.5% , so now from our measly profit we will be now giving 20% of it to the vatman and then another chunk to the taxman  , its hardly an incentive for anyone to go self employed these days is it when whatever you make  you have to give close to half away to support the Jeremy Kyle watchers      

[XTR2Turbo]

at 20%, for many the VAT man will be making more out of the transaction than the businesses.

I think this increase will have a fairly hefty retail impact.

Incidentally Steve the new rate come in 4th Jan as I understand it.

There also some ways around the increase around the changeover point if the customer is committed to the transaction but delivery cannot be effected. E.g. a firm order placed.

There is a long guide posted up on the HMRC site.

[andyfiggy2002]

just a thought, if a haulier delivers the goods to your store, would we in effect get charged an extra 2.5% on transport/diesel & an extra 2.5% on the produce being sold in the store?

[adamnreeves]

I would have thought vat rate is determined at the invoice date so if you raise an invoice in December and give 30 days to settle even though the work has not been done and you customer pays after work done then as far as the audit trail is concerned it's all above board. True it's pennies but being seen to provide customer service is king requires little effort on your part Steve.

[XTR2Turbo]

No the VAt will just get passed up the chain so the end punter ends up paying 2.5% more.

Fuel duty going up in Jan will increase transport costs separately to VAT and so an additional increase.

I think we will be looking at 3 - 4% inflation next year with this VAT change and commodity prices with interest rates at 0.5%.

I feel interest rates are going to have to rocket back up at some point.

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

I would have thought vat rate is determined at the invoice date so if you raise an invoice in December and give 30 days to settle even though the work has not been done and you customer pays after work done then as far as the audit trail is concerned it's all above board. True it's pennies but being seen to provide customer service is king requires little effort on your part Steve.

I think you will find that Steve's customer sevice is just fine and he doesnt need to bend the rules to keep customers. My guess is that there arent enough hours in the day for him already

[SteveD]

I would have thought vat rate is determined at the invoice date so if you raise an invoice in December and give 30 days to settle even though the work has not been done and you customer pays after work done then as far as the audit trail is concerned it's all above board. True it's pennies but being seen to provide customer service is king requires little effort on your part Steve.

customers pay for cars on collection ,and the invoice is done when the car is finished thats the way i have been doing it 20 odd years ,i would help customers out ,and in general bend over backwards for them (ask anyone that knows me )but its the way he went about it ,and its peanuts like i said not thousands ,again i hate penny pinching whingers there is more to bleedin life

its on a par with people asking for pictures when your selling say a bj shuttle , or a westy bonnet   they all look the bleedin same

[dombanks]

ive had this converstion with many people. it goes pretty much the same each time as you described.

them: oh i should buy xxx before the vat

me: why in the grandscheme its not going to add on too much

them but its going to 20%

me: yes from 17.5 so its 2.5 its gone up thats 2.50 in every 100

and so on. often its friends that are foreign students who have gotten it so wrong and think its a 20% increase. they get this info from various places mainly miss interpreting the press but also from each other and in one case from an adviser support network from their country  

i guess on 250 quid it was only going to add £10 and its infuriating, but at the mo everything is shooting up in price so dont blame some people for trying to get in before it happens.

im just wondering where the cutoff point is going to be. poeple can only tighten their belts so much before something has to give.

[SteveD]

im just wondering where the cutoff point is going to be. poeple can only tighten their belts so much before something has to give.

my belt gave up under the strain years ago