Help! - Fast Advice Needed, Vat , Company Formation

[agentsmith]

Hi All,

I have till today to secure some equipment from Switzerland.

I would need to take it to UK this weekend. Value is about 12k GBP.

- I believe I need vat registration for import
- Can I just turn up at the border with a small van and pay VAT (I understand it's zero rated for Duty since it's manufactured in Singapore)
- Since this is likely to only be done a couple of times, is it worth to use another company to process this?
- Are these guys any good? : http://www.business4less.co.uk/Product/managed_tax...
- if not is there a good alternative?
- if i form a company myself, with vat reg, is there a recommended piece of software (freeware) to issue some small invoice, and manage a payroll of 1?

thanks a lot in advance!

Edited by agentsmith on Thursday 21st January 08:54

[Eric Mc]

Why do you need to be VAT registered to import some goods?

That doesn't sound right to me.

However, you might be charged VAT at point of entry (on top of normal Import Duties etc) which you will not be able to reclaim.

[agentsmith]

sorry, yes, Vat reclaim was the reasons for wanting to be registered.

Edited by agentsmith on Thursday 21st January 09:49

[Eric Mc]

Obviously, if you register so you can reclaim, you will also need to charge VAT when you sell the goods on.

[Wings]

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/ch...

[Scooby_snax]

I am sure Eric will correct me if I am wrong but you dont need to worry about getting VAT registered rightaway, you have up to 3 years to reclaim VAT on purchases provided the purchasing was done by the same legal entity that is VAT registered
S

[Eric Mc]

Scooby_snax said:

I am sure Eric will correct me if I am wrong but you dont need to worry about getting VAT registered rightaway, you have up to 3 years to reclaim VAT on purchases provided the purchasing was done by the same legal entity that is VAT registered
S

That is only partially true. You can only reclaim VAT on costs incurred pre-VAT registration if the goods and/or items purchased are still being used (e.g. fixed assets) or are still part of your unsold stock at the point you eventuallu do get around to registering for VAT.