this may be of interest to most of us it is a petition to get vat taken off Vets fees, I guess its a lovely pipe dream but you never No the power of the people may reign one day
This is a tax on sick and dying animals and can often mean the difference between an animal living or having to be destroyed. In many instances it is the poorer members of our society who are affected the most. An example would be that I had to pay £800 V.A.T on one vet bill the alternative was to have my dog destroyed.
I started keeping Dexters 12 months ago as a hobby and so far it's all expense and no income. So would this be an option for people like me. And if so what do I need to do ?
Yes Colin - no problem. Although I collect a bit of VAT when selling semen, every quarter I have a lovely direct payment from Customs & Excise. The form is easy to complete and even easier when you put your accounts on the computer - it sorts almost everything for you. Usually I get about £300-£400 but during the busy times with contractors or buying equipment etc. this can go up to £900. There is no ceiling.
Obviously the selling of meat and cattle are VAT free
Jo
Sorry, forgot second bit!
We went to an accountant with the setting up of the business and he went back to the beginning from memory 2 years before. He regained tax which had been paid by my husband on his main income. This more than paid for the accountant's fees.
He also sorted something out for the VAT
Talking in the UK, or England at least, you need to have a certain turnover figure to register for VAT, or genuinely expect to have that level in the not too distant future. I don't know the level. If you are running your Dexter/Farm enterprise as a genuine business, expecting to make a profit eventually! :D :D :D Then you should be able to put any farm losses against the tax paid on any earned income (and interest, or your pension etc) for up to 3 years (I think).
PS. I'm not an accountant so don't take my word for it. And if your going to talk to an accountant, don't go to a general one, go for one that actually knows farming because it is a very special and unique industry, accounting-wise, with some of it's own rules.
Hi the current threshold for Vat registration is £6400.00 I don't expect many people on this site with Dexter's have a turnover of that size. You can register below that amount but it gets complicated
Google Vat and it will come up with the appropriate site and info.
Registering below the vat limit is no problem at all. The limit is there as a figure above which it is compulsory to register.
The question is, are you running a small business?
If you are declaring income on a tax return and if you have an accountant then there's absolutely no problem in registering for vat. You'll already be keeping books and there's no real overhead in time. In fact the quarterly returns do you a favour in encouraging you to keep up with your books.
Regarding the question of making a profit: The income tax people expect you to make a profit about every 4 years. They won't let you continually make a loss and claim back those losses against other income. HOWEVER you don't have to make an overall profit - over, say, 20 years. Although you may need to convince them that you intend to.
If you are reaching retirement age then you may be thinking about inheritance tax. Running a small farm business can be an advantage, but here you definitely need the advice of an accountant
Speak to Customs & Excise to see if you are eligible for VAT registration. We're claiming back a handy amount every quarter & it helped when we were able to reclaim the VAT on a new farm pick-up last year.
Vet's bills for pets can be horrendous & VAT added on makes it even worse. We've got 3 labradors insured with NFU for vet's fees only (up to £2,000 per year each) & currently pay £31.92 per month total by Direct Debit (this has increased from £25 per month last year because we had a claim in 2007 for almost £400). We are currently in pocket with the claims made.
Like Ann we would pay whatever amount to make our Labradors well. It was a huge vet's bill in excess of £800 some four years ago, incurred when Grace (2 year old Labrador) managed to get an ear of wheat lodged at the back of her lungs, that prompted us to get pet insurance just to cover vet's fees. We pay an excess of £50 on any claim. For peace of mind, it's well worth getting pet insurance.
Grace has spent the night at the vet's with another problem & the claim form is completed (the bill is currently in excess of £200 and will increase if they have to carry out further tests).
Grace is lucky she's a Labrador & not one of our Dexters as they have to earn their keep!
It would be nice to have VAT on pets' vet bills waived, but I can't see that happening.
For peace of mind we have found the NFU vet fee insurance excellent value & well worth taking on.
If you called them working dogs then you can claim back the vat!
The vat on vehicles is a good point. Of course you then have to add on vat when you sell it but you've had the use of the money and you keep the vat on the difference.
I remember a vat inspection (on my photo business) which I held at home in the farmhouse. I spent a pleasant morning with the inspector, until he found my Harley Davidson motorbike.
"Have you claimed VAT back on this"?
"Er no", I said.
"Why not"? was his reply. "All the farmers claim for motorbikes, there's no reason why you should not. Get it claimed back"?
I've had many inspections over the years (although never on the farm business) and my experience is that they only get upset if they think you are trying to hide something. If you claim something they disagree with then they simply make an adjustment.
At the next AGM everyone's going to turn up on a Harley now you've told us that we can get the VAT back Peter. Sounds good to me! I was in Barcelona a couple of years ago on the 100'th anniversary of HD. There were 10,000, or some huge number, of them going around the city for days. It was quite a site, very noisy, but fun! Were you there?
I agree it is worth any farm/smallholding registering to claim vat back also setting losses against a separate income. It is about the only 'income' we manage to make on this farm. Shame about the limited time you can do the latter, though as I understand it if you have one year in profit you can start that again for another 4 ? years. So if I sell all the animals I might manage it, no can't do that - I have to keep a few cows and sheep or I'll lose a little grant I get for doing that, its a Welsh thing so don't get too excited if you are in England. Although I expect you have something similar.
Many years ago I informed my slightly shocked accountant that as I rode my horse around to check my boundaries, fences and arable crops regularly, I considered it reasonable that all her costs should go through the farm accounts and VAT be re claimed, people were just starting to use quad bikes for the very same thing! I just wished I thought of it when I bought her!!!
He would have very much liked to argue but couldn't, so that was what we did. It was never queried.
Ah, tax deductions..........it's a wonderful, crazy world. I'm learning how to do tax returns this year for a national company and am looking forward to seeing what other small business folks are deducting. The Canadian government has created some more tax benefits for po' folk and I'm looking forward to my cheque in the mail.......(no small farm subsidies here )
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