Claiming VAT back if not registered

[heebeegeetee]

Morning all,

I've been told that it is possible to reclaim vat on purchases even though not registered for vat, so long as either it's done within the first year of trading or done within the first financial year in which trading commenced.

Is there any truth in any of this?

[touching cloth]

Don't think so no, what you can do is retrospectively claim for certain items already bought once you do register for Vat. It is only certain items and only going back a certain timeframe (different periods depending on goods or services), but you do still have to register to claim the VAT back, if you aren't registering for VAT then my understanding is no claim. What you can do is offset the vat inclusive amount against your profits anyway so even that can still work quite well.

[mrmr96]

You can only reclaim input VAT if you are VAT registered. The rule you're thinking of is the one that allows you to recalim input VAT for up to 3 years prior to VAT registration. But if you never register you can never reclaim.

More info on that is here:
http://www.pistonheads.com/GASSING/topic.asp?h=0&a...

HTH.