I did not expect the chancellors PBR to have a mention on the blog but the following story made me laugh.
I received a text message from the builder yesterday - "could I order another skip and settle the account." No problem with this. We have had four skips so far (the first we paid on delivery) and I hope that this next one will be the last. We have gone over budget on clearance fees.
I telephoned the skip company to be told that I owed them for three skips and another one would be the fourth.
He then said the first three skips were at 17.5% and the one delivered on Monday will be at 15% (it being 1st December). I asked how come they weren't all at 15% at I hadn't received an invoice from them for any the skips so far and the tax point should be the day they raise the invoice i.e. Monday 1st December. His response to this was that we should have been paying for the skips as we took delivery of them. The fact that they hadn't asked for payment nor had they issued an invoice was irrelevant.
I did try and point out that this was not how the new rules were supposed to work but he beat me with his response.
"Do you want the skip or not?"
I have read forum after forum about how the new VAT rules are supposed to apply for services already delivered and not invoiced and confusion reigns (I know this is sad but my real job has some exposure to this). Government seems able to make the announcement that VAT will change in one week without giving any meaningful thought to the difficulties this puts business in. I have a sneaking admiration for the way the skip company operated. They are wrong, they are not short changing HMRC and they know that reducing VAT by 2.5% will not make any difference to whether I buy their goods and services or not. In that respect they are right and I ordered the skip.
So much for a fiscal stimulus.
