VAT annoyance

soozagen

Hi,

Can anyone tell me whether vat should be applied to each individual item on an invoice or on the sub-total of all the items? Because of rounding, these amounts can differ considerably if there are a lot of items on an invoice. I find it continually annoying that company's vary in this and I would like to be able to tell them when they are wrong.

Thanks

myrnahaz

I don't think there's a rule for this, and the whole vat amount is sent off to the vatman, anyway, so the seller isn't going to make any money out of doing it. VAT is usually tagged on as a single amount at the end of an invoice (because it saves work) but some places have different levels of vat to add (eg, food is zero rated, cans of pop are at 17.5%, barbecue gas is another rate), so some shops might have to account for individual items.