Now its a while after the VAT increase, I would like to know if any businesses saw any problems with the increase, or if the transition was smooth in respect of invoicing etc. Any horror stories or major issues?

I should imaging retailers were hardest hit having to reprice goods, but I wonder how businesses adapted to invoicing or billing over December as the increase was introduced?

Do you think you suffered any excessive administration costs?

The angle I'm looking at is the amount of man hours required to implement changes during the 12 month VAT reduction, and although maybe benefical to consumers, I suspect it actually hurt small businesses?

How much time do you have to read my rant?

Ok keeping it brief - i have spent many hours changing the VAT on our accounts system from 15 - 17.5% only having to change it back again because an invoice was raised before the change in VAT - its been a nightmare.

To top it all BT sent us our phone bill, guess what £2 of charges have been VATed at 15%. and the rest was put through at 17.5% didnt notice this so wondered why i was 5p out in VAT on the bill. 5 calls & several hours later someone finally told me. What a farce !

My view on the VAT change - an absolute waste of time - it has casued us no end of grief!!!!

I said when the VAT cut was announced. would me saving 2.5% affect my spending pattern? If something was damaged or broken i need to replace it now irrespective of if i can save 2.5% in VAT

Nope i wasnt a fan before of the VAT changes - my recent problems have only reinforced my view

Rant over

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Clive

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The admin side was a pain for us as most of our clients pay us by monthly standing order. What we found though was the decrease didn't cause too much of a problem - clients like having reductions - but going back to the original amount looked like an increase even if it was only the VAT. It made the clients look at the contracts in place as they were often referred by the Accounts Department for authorising. Luckily all of our clients authorised the increase, but we didn't like having to make our clients do the extra paperwork the changes caused.

so you lower your sales tax, and then business has to absorb the costs of pricing and system changes. Then as Houghton says, your customers think you are putting up your prices when the tax increases! What a great system

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Thanks guys.

Any more VAT horror stories? Could do with a few more before the end of the week so I can write up my report

any more for any more??

ive borrowed Stavros's rant meter today

Spent the past 2 hours changing vat from 17.5 - 15% and back again - what an absolute waste of time, energy and effort - the man hours ive lost due to changing the vat is ridiculous

Stress levels through the roof & Steve isnt helping by saying im grumpy

didnt even ask if i wanted a coffee to calm me down

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Clive

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oii grumpy, do you want a coffee? oh he's left....

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Steve

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I add mine to each invoice so no problem there!

And now with the eshop I can just put it as part of the price (inclusive) problems are few and far between!

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I think the OP was relating to the VAT change, I should hope you add it to each invoice

I'm with Clive, although he's bore the brunt of our issues, the hassle has been painful and un-needed. Latest one is the office rent. Landlord tends to send invoices every couple of months, Jan one has just arrived at 15%.

Although HMRC have said they'll turn a blind eye during Jan, I'd be interested to see some stats on wasted administration during the initial VAT decrease, and then 12 months later the VAT increase.

Was it really worth it? For the business owner probarbly not...

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Steve

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waits until I leave on Friday & then has Monday off - Steve you are on coffee duty all Tuesday

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Clive

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For the increase in sales versus the time wasted in changing the VAT to and from 15 & 17.5% i cannot see how any business has made that much of a profit when they actually calculate the man hours.

Im not ranting (for once ) but i can honestly say the VAT change has been an absolute dead duck as far as im concerned, both from the point of view as me running a business and me being a consumer!

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Clive

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The issues surrounding the very ill conceived VAT changes, in my view, will not be known for another 2 years and 9 months. This period together with the 15 months since the first change makes up 4 years which is the period that HMRC will look back over when the 4 year cap kicks off from next month.

Yes the admin changes were a nightmare although this mainly focuses on system inability to cope with change.

HMRC have said that they realise there were lots of practical difficulties with both changes and that they will apply a light touch for those VAT periods affected by the change, however it seems to me that these periods will be a natural target for inspectors not necessarily just because of the VAT under-declaration that might be at risk because of the rate change but because this sort of change tends to highlight issues that registered traders have probably been getting wrong for years because of misunderstanding of the rules e.g. tax point dates. The 40+ pages of guidance issued by HMRC covered all of these issues and I am sure there will be more stories to come.

Barry