Register for VAT or not?

Shah_

I am a self employed personal assistant/carer and have been since August 2018.
I pay for fuel costs driving between clients homes, office things for general administration keeping and PPE. 
I have recently been contemplating claiming back VAT on fuel and purchases but am unsure if this is a good idea - there is a lot of confusing info out there. And if I register, what VAT would I owe HMRC? I charge clients £13 per hour and make well below the £85,000 VAT threshold. Can anyone advise if it would be more cost effective to reclaim VAT or not

Shah_

Also just to add, I only make ~£600pcm working part time as I am a full time PhD student. The main thing that got me questioning whether I should reclaim VAT or not is that my work laptop recently died and have had to pay out for a new one that wasn't cheap. 

Peter999_2

You'd have to start charging them £13 plus vat so £15.6 - will they pay this do you think?     I'm an IT contractor and it used to be worth registering for VAT as I'd only pay 13% VAT and get to keep the other 7% but they've stopped that now.    

Shah_

Peter999_2 said:

You'd have to start charging them £13 plus vat so £15.6 - will they pay this do you think?     I'm an IT contractor and it used to be worth registering for VAT as I'd only pay 13% VAT and get to keep the other 7% but they've stopped that now.    

Thanks for the response. I wouldn't be able to charge more unfortunately. My clients receive a certain amount from the council specifically to pay for PA services. So would you recommend not claiming for VAT?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Another option (I think) would be to charge the same £13 but £2.16 of that would be VAT i.e. £10.83 + VAT.

Unless a flat rate scheme is an option for your trade?

Are you really sure it will be worth all the hassle?

Sandtree

Early registration for VAT is only sensible in two cases:

1) You sell a product/service that is VAT 0% rated
2) Your customers are all VAT registered

If not then your £600 becomes £500 to you and £100 to HMRC and your expenses would need to be more than £500 per month to get back more than £100 in VAT each month to be better off.

The first step is to check what the VAT status is of the service you are providing, assuming its "care" (rather than a business style PA) then I believe this is currently VAT exempt in which case you cannot recover the VAT on products/supplies etc in relation to this business.

Note that "VAT Exempt" and "0% VAT" may have the same impact to the buyer but makes a massive difference to the seller - dont think of them as interchangeable