HMRC has withdrawn the Flat Rate Scheme ready reckoner that I referred to in The VAT Flat Rate Scheme for Small Businesses – a brief description.
This is sad news as it means that it is currently harder to work out whether using the Flat Rate Scheme is harder. You will have to do all the calculations yourself.
It is possible that a new version will be made available on another Government website. As soon as I become aware of this happening I’ll let you know.
I have added the latest table, as published in the Budget 2011 papers, to the site.
Registration limits – updated for 2011
The registration limits from 1 April 2011 are:
| Registration | £73,000 | ||
| Deregistration | £71,000 |
Past VAT registration and deregistration limits:
| Period covered | Registration limit | Deregistration limit |
| 1 April 2010 – 31 March 2011 | £70,000 | £68,000 |
| 1 May 2009 – 31 March 2010 | £68,000 | £66,000 |
| 1 April 2008 – 30 April 2008 | £67,000 | £65,000 |
| 1 April 2007 – 31 March 2008 | £64,000 | £62,000 |
| 1 April 2006 – 31 March 2007 | £61,000 | £59,000 |
| 1 April 2005 – 31 March 2006 | £60,000 | £58,000 |
| 1 April 2004 – 31 March 2005 | £58,000 | £56,000 |
| 10 April 2003 – 31 March 2004 | £56,000 | £54,000 |
| 25 April 2002 – 9 April 2003 | £55,000 | £53,000 |
| 1 April 2001 – 24 April 2002 | £54,000 | £52,000 |
| 1 April 2000 – 31 March 2001 | £52,000 | £50,000 |
| 1 April 1999 – 31 March 2000 | £51,000 | £49,000 |
| 1 April 1998 – 31 March 1999 | £50,000 | £48,000 |
| 1 December 1997 – 31 March 1998 | £49,000 | £47,000 |
| 27 November 1996 – 30 November 1997 | £48,000 | £46,000 |
| 29 November 1995 – 26 November 1996 | £47,000 | £45,000 |
HMRC’s online service will be offline
HMRC’s online service will be offline
Important
This is important for any business that is intending to do it’s VAT return online (or use any of HMRC’s other online services) in the first few days of April.
You need to do your VAT return by 1 April 2011 to avoid problems that might arise if the “engineering work overruns.”
HMRC has announced that its online services will be offline from 2 April to 6 April 2011. They have provided some additional information which says:
We wanted to let you know that there will soon be a short period of disruption to our online services to allow for planned system changes and enhancements. Some HMRC IT services will be unavailable from normal service closure time (this differs from system to system) on Friday 1 April 2011 but they will be fully restored from 6.00am on Wednesday 6th April.
This means that customers who want to submit returns online – notably SA and VAT – will be unable to do so throughout this period. This is what agents can expect:
- On Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd April returns can be submitted as normal using the HMRC portal but these transactions will not be processed until Wednesday 6th April.
- On Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th April customers will not be able to submit returns using the HMRC portal. They will receive an acknowledgement from the Government Gateway but the returns won’t be validated or processed until Wednesday 6th April. Agents will not be able to view their client lists and details through the SA portal throughout this period and our telephone helpline advisers may not have access to the full range of IT systems to enable them to deal with customers’ enquiries
We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause but we believe that the impact upon our customers during this short period of IT upgrades will be minimal.
The HMRC website www.hmrc.gov.uk will remain available throughout for customers to access guidance, forms and other information and agents can keep up to date by checking the service availability pages on the website.
So, there you have it, HMRC customer service standards think it’s acceptable to make the service unavailable at a critical time for business that do their VAT returns online.
Do you think it’s acceptable? Leave your views in the comments below.
Good news for hot take-away food suppliers?
Recently there have been two decisions released by the Courts which suggest that the UK is applying the wrong VAT treatment to supplies of hot take-away food.
In the first case the Upper Tier Tax Tribunal ruled in the case of Deliverance Ltd that it was important to take into account the intention of the supplier in supplying hot-food. This seems to be the wrong way to approach the matter as it leaves us with a position where the supplier has to prove that it intended to do something, rather than looking at the basic rules for determining the VAT treatment.
In the decision released last week on several cases referred to it by the German authorities it is clear that the correct view is to consider whether the supply being made is of goods (i.e. food) or services (i.e. catering). In the German cases many of the taxpayers were making supplies from kiosks or stands in public areas. The ECJ decision indicates that where there is little or no additional supply, other than hot-food, the supply is one of goods. In the instances referred to the ECJ by Germany the supplies were, as goods, eligible for a reduced rate of VAT.
How might this apply in the UK?
That is a very good question to ask!
It is clear that the simple approach of looking at whether the supply is of goods or services might provide one way of applying the ruling of the ECJ. The difficulty arises from how HMRC might approach the issue. I’ll avoid commenting on that further here as I’m sure HMRC need no help from me in considering its position – although if they ask I’ll happily answer!
The upshot of all this is that there might be a change to the current rules that would make supplies of hot take-away food zero-rated. If that happens it will be good news for Fish and Chip shops, and other take-away outlets, as it is likely to see them able to reduce their prices.
What’s your view? Leave a comment below.
