Am I entitled to a VAT Receipt?

[shep1001]

I asked my broadband provider (See the light) the other day for a VAT invoice as I need this to claim my broadband costs back for my home office.

Whilst I get an invoice every month that shows my bill with a VAT breakdown, it says 'this is not a VAT receipt' on it and there is no VAT number quoted.

Their response was 'we don't provide VAT receipts for domestic customers'

Am I entitled to a VAT receipt for the services I have paid VAT on? if they don't play ball at the second time of asking is there anyway of forcing their hand to get it?

Sadly our private development only has a line plant for IFNL so there is a limited number of suppliers who I can get my services from. I have no issue with the service they provide, it's been very good but they got right on my tits with the offhanded response of we don't supply VAT receipts to domestic customers.

[Eric Mc]

Are you trying to reclaim Input VAT or are you just trying to offset the overall cost against your business profits?

[Glosphil]

I thought a VAT receipt was mandatory for purchases s over £10? Only if business & customer are both VAT registered?

Edited by Glosphil on Sunday 15th September 11:29

[Scabutz]

Eric Mc said:

Are you trying to reclaim Input VAT or are you just trying to offset the overall cost against your business profits?

I think he is submitting expenses to his employer as a home worker and his accounts department want a VAT receipt.

[Eric Mc]

I'll wait for his explanation.

VAT is normally only reclaimable by a business when the invoice is made out and addressed to the business - not to a non VAT registered individual.

[Mr Pointy]

OP: here's some information:
https://www.oneaccounting.co.uk/blog/what-proof-do...

But you've got Eric's attention so use it wisely.

[shep1001]

Eric Mc said:

Are you trying to reclaim Input VAT or are you just trying to offset the overall cost against your business profits?

Thanks Eric. It's not my business. I am home office based and my employer expects me to provide VAT receipts for goods and services I wish to claim back as expenses.

[Eric Mc]

Next set of questions - is the employer hoping to reclaim VAT on these costs?

Is the employer hoping to offset these costs against HIS business profits?

Is he demanding these from you so that you can reclaim the costs from him through an Employee Expenses claim?

[clockworks]

I worked as a computer field engineer for over 20 years, with 3 different employers. They all wanted VAT receipts for any expenses that I was claiming, although they would let the odd one slip through if I wrote "VAT receipt not available" on my expenses claim.

They were particularly hot on wanting VAT receipts for parking and fuel. Most of us ran our own cars on expenses, or had Car Ownership Scheme cars, so they weren't strictly company vehicles (no BIK, as we made a small contribution for private use, and claimed a fixed rate per mile for fuel).

[Sheepshanks]

My last big company insisted on VAT receipts for entertaining. It's not even an allowable expense of the business, never mind one that you can clain VAT on, but they wouldn't budge.

[anonymous-user]

You can inform hmrc of the refusal

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-trade...

[PF62]

shep1001 said:

I asked my broadband provider (See the light) the other day for a VAT invoice as I need this to claim my broadband costs back for my home office.

Whilst I get an invoice every month that shows my bill with a VAT breakdown, it says 'this is not a VAT receipt' on it and there is no VAT number quoted.

Their response was 'we don't provide VAT receipts for domestic customers'

Am I entitled to a VAT receipt for the services I have paid VAT on? if they don't play ball at the second time of asking is there anyway of forcing their hand to get it?

They only have a legal obligation to provide a VAT invoice to a person or entity that is VAT registered (or someone who is based in another EU country). Choosing not issue VAT invoices gives them a cash flow advantage on the VAT element of the bill.

And if you are a VAT registered business they could quite reasonably ask why you have a domestic contract rather than a business contract.

[Fastpedeller]

What difference should it make if he's a domestic or business user? This riles me - It's just a supplier seizing an opportunity to charge more!

[Heres Johnny]

PF62 said:

And if you are a VAT registered business they could quite reasonably ask why you have a domestic contract rather than a business contract.

Depends on the contract, I’d be surprised if a domestic contract prohibited any business use except beyond the limits of a fair use policy, and a business contract would typically have a higher level of SLA in the event of an issue which is why you might opt for such a thing.

Edited by Heres Johnny on Monday 16th September 07:51

[shep1001]

Eric Mc said:

Next set of questions - is the employer hoping to reclaim VAT on these costs?

Is the employer hoping to offset these costs against HIS business profits?

Is he demanding these from you so that you can reclaim the costs from him through an Employee Expenses claim?

Thanks Eric. I work for the big global company who 'creates chemistry' yes they ask for the VAT receipt so that I can reclaim the costs from them through my monthly employee expenses claim. No idea if they offset the costs against profit.

It's only an issue for me as I can't have the default broadband package on the corporate BT contract. If this was the case it would just be paid for and I wouldn't see a bill each month.