Segregation of vat

freddie123

I wonder if someone could clarify for me please? I have a client who runs a hairdressers in the downstairs of a building, sole trader, turnover approx £80k. Upstairs is her niece who runs a beauty salon, also sole trader, own bank account, own tax return etc. turnover £40k The beautician is now leaving to go as an employee elsewhere and the hairdresser would like to take over the upstairs beauty salon. She will run it through a separate bank account with separate suppliers and there is one employee which she could carry on putting through the exiting PAYE ref for the beauty salon. So the hairdresser wouldn't really work up there because the one employee could run it.

Can she keep these as two separate businesses and not register for vat? She would do one tax return but with two self employments on there?