Bit embarassed to be asking this....

confoosed

I know this is basic accounting but I can't for the life of me remember what to do.

We have a handyman that's done some work for us and has put in an invoice for the work, he isn't VAT registered. He's claimed for his time plus cost of items bought and he's attached the VAT receipts for the items. Can we claim the VAT back on these items when he's obviously not accounted for the VAT on his invoice as he's not registered.

JodieR

No you can't. You could claim if he was an employee of the company, but not as he's self employed.

Monsoon

Agree with Jodie. Your contract is with a non-VAT registered entity, not the VAT-registered shops that he bought materials from. There is no VAT to reclaim, as the VAT was bought by a non-registered person.

T.C.

It would have been simpler to have bought the materials yourselves and then got a labour-only contractor in to do the work, then the VAT would be reclaimable.

PGM

T.C. wrote: »

It would have been simpler to have bought the materials yourselves and then got a labour-only contractor in to do the work, then the VAT would be reclaimable.

Definitely. Although the contractor has probably added 10% to the material cost so they won't like it!

deanshepherd

Depends on your agreement with the handyman.

If you arranged for him to purchase items on your behalf, out of convenience, then those goods are your purchases and you can reclaim VAT on them.

PGM

deanshepherd wrote: »

Depends on your agreement with the handyman.

If you arranged for him to purchase items on your behalf, out of convenience, then those goods are your purchases and you can reclaim VAT on them.

That does sound like a bit of a grey area, how do you differentiate between the above and items generally bought for a job? Because they would also be bought on your behalf.

This is something that applies to me, as we often have non vatable people working for us and lose the vat on their purchases.

jilt

If they gave you the receipts and didn't include the purchases on there invoice then you could claim the vat back.

PGM

jilt wrote: »

If they gave you the receipts and didn't include the purchases on there invoice then you could claim the vat back.

Oh right thanks.