Very Awkward Tax: A bite-size guide to VAT for small business

By Emily Coltman

Of all the UK's myriad taxes, VAT is one that affects us all, but as a small business owner it causes a great deal of uncertainty. When, if at all, should you register for VAT? How do you charge and collect VAT? What do you actually have to pay to HMRC? And what happens if you're making sales, or buying supplies, from outside the UK?
In this new e-book, her third, Emily Coltman ACA, one of the UK's foremost small business accountants, answers all these questions and many more, in the plain, simple English we have come to expect from her work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harriman House
• Release date: May 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781908003652

Emily Coltman

Emily Coltman, Chief Accountant to FreeAgent, is a very unusual Chartered Accountant - she communicates in plain English as well as accounting-speak! After graduating from the University of Cambridge, she trained and qualified with growing accountancy practice Cannon Moorcroft, where she looked after accounts and tax for a portfolio of micro-business clients. This gave her a keen interest in accounting software and training, which led to starting up her own business making screen-capture tutorial videos, and later to joining FreeAgent, where she works with worldwide small businesses to help them use this simple online accounting system to keep their books in real time. Emily is passionate about helping the owners of small and growing businesses to escape their fear of 'the numbers', and believes that, with the right tools and guidance - some of which she aims to provide in this book, absolutely anyone, even if they were hopeless at maths at school - can learn to look after the finances of a small business.

Book preview

Very Awkward Tax

A guide to UK VAT for small business owners

By Emily Coltman FCA

An Enterprise Nation book

www.enterprisenation.com

Harriman House Ltd

18 College Street

Petersfield

Hampshire

GU31 4AD

Tel: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Website: www.harriman-house.com

First published in Great Britain in 2013, updated 2015

Copyright © Harriman House Ltd

The right of Emily Coltman to be identified as the author has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN: 978-1-908003-65-2

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publisher.

This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without the prior written consent of the Publisher. No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person or corporate body acting or refraining to act as a result of reading material in this book can be accepted by the Publisher, by the Author, or by the employer of the Author.

This book is for my darling husband Matthew, with a big hug and heartfelt thanks for all your wonderful support and love – and for coming up with the alternative acronym Very Awkward Tax

xxx

Contents

About the author

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 – What is VAT?

Chapter 2 – VAT Registration

Chapter 3 – VATable Sales

Chapter 4 – Accounting For VAT

Chapter 5 – Reclaiming Input VAT

Chapter 6 – Filling In A VAT Return And Paying VAT

Chapter 7 – VAT And International Trade

Chapter 8 – Weird And Wonderful VAT Rules

Conclusion

About the author

Emily Coltman FCA, Chief Accountant to FreeAgent, is a very unusual Chartered Accountant – she can talk and write in plain English as well as accounting-speak!

After graduating from the University of Cambridge, she trained and qualified with growing accountancy practice Cannon Moorcroft, where she looked after accounts and tax for a portfolio of micro-business clients.

This gave her a keen interest in accounting software and training, which led to starting up her own business making screen-capture tutorial videos, and later to joining FreeAgent, where she works with worldwide small businesses to help them use this simple online accounting system to keep their books in real time.

Emily is passionate about helping the owners of small and growing businesses to escape their fear of the numbers, and believes that, with the right tools and guidance – some of which she aims to provide in this book – absolutely anyone, even if they were hopeless at maths in school, can learn to look after the finances of a small business.

Emily is also the author of Refreshingly Simple Finance for Small Business and Micro Multinationals, both published by Harriman House.

Acknowledgements

Firstly, thank you to my employers FreeAgent who sponsored me to write this book. I think that’s a round of Krispy Kreme doughnuts I owe the management team!

I have a lot of great friends in the business world and it’d take another book to name them all, but I would like to thank in particular those who’ve both helped me with VAT research and encouraged me to write:

Dennis Howlett – who first opened my eyes to the world of the blog and showed me that there was more to accounting than routine work.

Robert Killington – friendly VAT expert extraordinaire.

Michael Green – who always has a word of encouragement and praise for a new writing project and has promoted my other books so enthusiastically.

The Enterprise Nation crew!

And outside the business community, I’d never have started to write if it hadn’t been for the example set by my dad, who’s been writing professionally since before I was born – and my mum, who so patiently types up all his work. I love you both so much. Snick the Snick x

Introduction

Welcome to VAT, which despite the title of this book actually stands for Value Added