VAT on purchases from a charity

Atidi

JasonLVC wrote: »

I guess if you were quoted £100 and that was a VAT inclusive price (as retail sales should be quoteed inclusive), then that means the buyer would have been able to reclaim £16 VATthus making the laptop cheaper...

But this doesn't appear to be a retail sale if the OP had hoped to recover the VAT as input tax.

System

But the charity was correct. The VAT was included. albeit a zero rate. You would have a gripe if they said VAT included and it was a VAT exempt item. They have done absolutely nothing wrong. You have made an erroneous assumption that the only rate of VAT is 20% and assumed that that is what you would be invoiced for.

cutandshut

I too would have been peeved if this had happened to me as I would have fallen into the same trap as the OP.
For what it's worth my business software requires purchase invoices to be entered as gross (including VAT) it then automatically separates the VAT element at 20% If it needs a different rate it has to be altered. It's very easy to forget sometimes!

Splott

gazfocus wrote: »

I'm sorry but I'm not going to apologise for my comments. I accept there may be no requirement but it's very underhanded when a charity (actually a ltd company arm of a charity) advertises that VAT is included in the price stated. In my mind, the only reason anyone would state that when VAT is zero rated is because they would know it would mislead potential customers into thinking the VAT rate would be the standard 20%.

It is up to you as a business to know what VAT rate applies. If you didn't know it could be zero rated, that is a deficiency on your behalf, not theirs.