VAT registration

[Fredxx]

There use to be a wheeze where if you were self employed and owned a Ltd
company, you could have one VAT registered for corporate customers and the
other non registered for private clients who couldn't reclaim the VAT the
paid.

Is this still true? In this case my friend is S/E and critically close to
the VAT registration threshold. Is it possible to use the same principle to
effectively double the threshold?

 

[PeterSaxton]

There use to be a wheeze where if you were self employed and owned a Ltd
company, you could have one VAT registered for corporate customers and the
other non registered for private clients who couldn't reclaim the VAT the
paid.

Is this still true?  In this case my friend is S/E and critically closeto
the VAT registration threshold.  Is it possible to use the same principle to
effectively double the threshold?

It's not allowed and as far as I know it has never been allowed.

 

[Troy Steadman]

There use to be a wheeze where if you were self employed and owned a Ltd
company, you could have one VAT registered for corporate customers and the
other non registered for private clients who couldn't reclaim the VAT the
paid.

Is this still true?  In this case my friend is S/E and critically closeto
the VAT registration threshold.  Is it possible to use the same principle to
effectively double the threshold?

It isn't done this way.

What should have happened - in the past - is that she should have come
up with all kinds of very good reasons why she needed two separate
entities to deal with two completely different sets of customers -
major and minor. There are many, many good reasons for doing this -
avoiding tax is just about the only reason she *can't* use.

The question would then never have arisen.

Having left it so late she is certain to get found out and it isn't
worth the risk.

 

[Nogood Boyo]

There use to be a wheeze where if you were self employed and owned a Ltd
company, you could have one VAT registered for corporate customers and the
other non registered for private clients who couldn't reclaim the VAT the
paid.

Is this still true?  In this case my friend is S/E and critically closeto
the VAT registration threshold.  Is it possible to use the same principle to
effectively double the threshold?

See Section 13 of HMRC Notice 700/1 "Should I be Registered for VAT".

http://tinyurl.com/nrj8bp

It sets out in detail the circmstances in which HMRC will consider the
separation of businesses to be artificial and direct that they be
treated as one for VAT registration purposes.