Do you own a successful business? If you do there is a good chance you might already be thinking about registering for VAT. Even if you haven’t hit the current threshold for obligatory registration you may have decided it is worth your while to register prior to that time anyway.
Whatever the case may be, the odds are good that you will want to get some advice on what to do and when you need to do it. VAT can be complex and worrying for some business people – especially when they are not familiar with the ins and outs of what needs to be done and when. Feeling nervous and in the dark about the situation is not a rarity – lots of people have been there before you and no doubt many will follow you in the future as well.
The trick is to get the right information to help you through the process. Feeling anxious about the situation usually comes from being uninformed. The more information you have the more empowered you will be.
So where should you begin? Well, it’s a good idea to go straight to the source – in other words the HMRC website. They have a dedicated section for VAT and it is split into lots of useful areas. This means you can go straight to the area you need for the information you want.
Another possibility is to contact your accountant if you have one. They should be able to provide advice on registering for VAT and whether or not it would be cost effective to do so if you haven’t yet reached the threshold. If you want to have a chat about VAT and how it would affect your business it might be good to arrange an actual face to face meeting with your accountant to find out more.
As you can see the information is there and if you use an accountant regularly you might find meeting with them will be charged in with your normal fees. Do ask before going ahead. HMRC has plenty of information and advice for you as well though, and it can help simply to take some time to look through the information they give you to become more familiar with it all.
In months to come you may find you look back on this time and smile. Whenever you approach a new topic for the first time it can be challenging and your natural instinct is to run in the opposite direction. Of course if your business is selling enough to hit the VAT threshold you don’t have the option not to think about it! The good news is the advice is there – you just have to go out and find it.