Jay Cooke

Depends what your UK address is. You cannot use a virtual office, PO box or an Accountants address, nor can you use a home address unless you are resident at that address. So if you are using any of the above address types, HMRC will not accept them. If you are now UK resident and no longer resident in France, then you should be able to change the address via your government gateway, If you are saying there is a mismatch between the VAT return address and the address shown on the VAT checker, then the best thing to do is go to the online web checker, enter your VAT number and proceed to the screen where it shows the wrong/Ruby address. Take a screenshot of this page and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and there is a link "Problem with this page?", click on that and you will see a form you can fill, explain what the problem is (wrong address), press submit and someone from IT helpdesk will be in touch to ask for a screenshot and then they should be able to fix the database mismatch. Don't register for VAT again, because then you will have two VAT numbers (or HMRC will reject your application on the basis you are already registered) and that will be very confusing, so stick with fixing the address issue.

If the venue is a genuine agent, then the ticket sales do not belong to them/the ticket sales are not their turnover, if they have charged VAT on ticket sales then they are acting as principal (selling in their own name rather than selling as an agent on behalf of the band). The agent can of course handle sales and collect monies into their agent/client account but this is not their money, the agent will want to control everything like ticket sales and collecting the money because that way they control the process, they can see exactly what number of tickets are sold and so they can calculate their commission (30%) and only their commission is subject to VAT (because they would invoice you for 30% of ticket sales plus VAT as they are VAT registered, but the remaining 70% is yours and you are not VAT registered.) This is really a contractual matter. If contract just said 70/30 split then that is open to interpretation as to 70/30 of what? Agents tend not to take on any risk, so if the agent is paying for the venue and hire of equipment and marketing and are at risk of not getting paid (ie, agent pays all these costs but then only sells one ticket) then the agent is possibly more likely a principal selling in their own name as they have all the risk, whereas an agent may incur some incidental costs but if no tickets are sold their only loss is their commission, whereas the band will earn nothing and will have expended costs on transport, venue hire, etc. If they are selling as principle, then the tickets sales will be plus VAT as it is the venue making the sale direct, not on behalf of the band, so if they are charging VAT on tickets sales that could be correct if there is a lack of detail as to whether they are an agent or a principal. So I think your logic is right, but with a sketchy contract/email only agreement then maybe a polite approach and explanation is the best way forwards, if the venue agrees then they are no worse off, they credit note the VAT they charged in error and they give that back to you/they get it back from HMRC, they then take their 30% fee from the ticket sales plus VAT and you get the remaining 70% without VAT. Think of it like Ticketmaster, they don't buy in tickets for a concert and then are stuck if nobody buys them, they merely list events and sell on behalf of the promotor/band, Ticketmaster charge the customer £10 for this and also charge the promotor a fee, the customer pays ticket master £100 for the ticket + £10 admin fee, the £100 is nothing to do with Ticketmaster, they just handle the transaction through their bank to make sure the buyer is legit and pays the right amount/no chargebacks, etc and then transfers the £100 direct to the promotor (minus their commission).

The supplier is meant/required to re-issue their invoice to you once they have their VAT number. But whilst waiting for their VAT number they can charge VAT but they cannot show it separate, for example, if the price was £100 + £20 VAT (total £120), they cannot show the £100 and the £20, they can only show on the invoice £120 (no breakdown) and then when they have their VAT number they should reissue that invoice to the customer but now showing the net + VAT (£100 + £20) and only with this reissued invoice can the customer reclaim the VAT because the customer does not hold a valid VAT invoice because there is no VAT number nor breakdown of the VAT on the invoice. If selling to a consumer it makes sense to charge the £120 in full because it will be difficult to go back to the customer after you've made the sale, whereas if selling to a business customer who has an account with you, the supplier could have just charged the £100 for now and then charged the £20 VAT once they got their VAT number, but again, more admin./time so easier to just charge everyone £120 and then issue VAT invoices later. Section 5.1 of this link Who should register for VAT (VAT Notice 700/1)/vat-notice-7001-should-i-be-registered-for-vat#accounting-for-vat

Why is the landlord paying 20% VAT on domestic electricity? Domestic electricity is 5% reduced rated. If each flat has an individual meter, then why are the utility companies charging 20% VAT on a supply that is clearly being made to a domestic property? I doubt HMRC advised the landlord on any of this. When a landlord charges his tenants specifically for the provision of utilities such as electricity/gas/water and charges for each tenant’s actual consumption, it is a separate transaction outside that of the rent (rent is always exempt). The tenant is seen as buying their utilities from the landlord separate to their rental agreement. A landlord is entitled to a deduction for input tax on the purchase of utilities to the extent that such a utility is resold as a separate taxable item. The supply of domestic electricity is 5%. Suspect landlord is just recharging to tenants what he himself has incurred, so if he is being charged £100 + 20% VAT by the utility provider then he will recharge £100 + 20% to the tenant and he is not out of pocket, so it might be the problem lays with the utility supplier who is charging wrong rate of VAT to the landlord. This is one for the tenants association/service charge company to deal.

If you paid an agent to deregister you, then you should go back to the agent and get them to fix this because it is a problem they created when they failed to deregister you correctly. Yes, you can write to HMRC and ask to be deregistered for VAT, they may allow you to deregister from an earlier date if you can supply evidence and proof that you had stopped trading last year (example, copy of your business bank account showing no more income, or if you had an eBay/Amazon account, proof that this account is now closed as at last year). Writing is a slow process and so you will have uncertainty until you get a response from HMRC, it could be 30-60 days before you get a reply. HMRC do not always accept a backdated deregistration when a current VAT return is outstanding, you may need to file a Nil VAT return. Or you may need to explain in your de-registration letter as to why you cannot file via MTD, HMRC may accept exceptional circumstances. Being a foreigner is not an excuse, you registered for VAT and have a legal obligation to comply with the UK VAT rules which includes filing VAT returns digitally,. If you do not have the knowledge then a reasonable business owner would seek paid for assistance using an agent or Accountant to ensure compliance. You cannot file a paper VAT return/cannot send return in the post. HMRC will not accept a paper VAT return received in the post.

It is always necessary to hold proof of any input tax claim and so yes, you must hold fuel receipts that confirm that you have purchased fuel, otherwise you could pretend to have made journeys in order to claim VAT you never incurred. Section 9.10 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-on-motoring-expenses-notice-70064#road-fuel-bought-for-business

If you work from home "full-time" and you are a sole Director of the company, then you are not entitled to the £6 per week tax allowance, or to put it another way, only employees are entitled to the £6 per week allowance, are you an employee (as in, the Director has an employment contract and is paid an agreed salary for the role they perform)? I would also double check to see if you can even claim the £6 because you state you work 100% fully from home, the £6 per week allowance applies only where there is occasional use of home office as per this link "You cannot claim tax relief if you choose to work from home. This includes if your employment contract lets you work from home some or all of the time or your employer has an office, but you cannot go there sometimes because it’s full" https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home The £6 is not VAT recoverable because it is a payment from the company to you the individual/the employee. The company does not incur incur any input tax because, presumably, the utilities, rent/mortgage and phone costs are not in the name of the company but in the name of the home owner, the company cannot reclaim input tax on costs that are not addressed to or wholly used by the company.

The confirmation letter should already contain the VAT number and the date of registration, so you may want to double check the letter as it may not be obvious as the VAT number will be mentioned within an paragraph of words and not highlighted or in large font, the format of the VAT number is xxx xxxx xx. I'm a tax agent and submit VAT registrations regularly and the confirmation letter does contain the VAT number, you do not need a VAT certificate (VAT4), that is just another piece of paper that confirms the VAT number, all that matters is knowing what your VAT number is. HMRC do not give out VAT numbers over the telephone, they can only send a copy of the VAT certificate in the post, and of course if you've changed address twice, then the chances are any request to send a copy will go to the old/original address.
If for some reason you do not have a confirmation letter that shows your VAT number, then it will be difficult to fix things, HMRC will not accept a change of address over the telephone, it has to be in writing. That you do not have a VAT number should not see it put to the back of the queue but will probably mean it will be difficult to allocate the PPOB notification automatically as there is no VAT number which means it will be dealt with manually which will take some time. I cannot post external links here but there is a website that allows you to search for VAT numbers by entering the company name into a search box, HMRC do not offer this service, so you may need to do some Googling, but if you find the right website then you will find your VAT number and then you can setup a government gateway and add the VAT service to your government gateway and then you can make amendments to PPOB online as well as be able to file your VAT returns.

You can't rely on HMRC giving you advice when the answer is "it depends on the contractual nature of the supply you make". You are either acting as an (agent )on behalf of the talent or you are buying in the services of the talent and selling it on under your own name (principal), I would have thought the clue was in your description "small actors agency", an agent brings a seller and a buyer together, like eBay does, an agent doesn't sell anything other than their finders fee, again, like eBay. Most talent agencies operate as an agent, not as a principal, but it does depend on what the contracts says, the contract between you and the talent and the contract between you and the studio/production company. As an agent, you would typically charge a commission or fee to either the talent, the studio or both, the commission is your turnover for VAT registration purposes, the money that passes through you that belongs to the talent is nothing to do with you other than it comes through you so that you can i) ensure the talent fee is correct and ii) you can calculate your commission correctly. "On the other hand, people are saying...." you cannot rely upon the internet or man in the pub to ensure your business is compliant, you've already potentially registered for VAT in error, you have a fiduciary duty to get things right and DIY tax advice only works on simple stuff. In your post you refer to "the actor would have invoiced the Agency £900 i.e. £1000 minus 10% commission of £100. Simple! The Agency never raised invoices to the Client (actor) it was always the actor invoicing us." but there are some issues here too, the Actors fee is £1,000 so why are they raising an invoice for £900? The actor bills you £1,000 (this is your cost/expense), you then invoice the actor for your fee of £100 (this is your sale), but what you are describing is the actor is already deducting your fee from their fee but this is wrong, the actor is now under declaring their sales on their own tax return. The actor cannot net off your fee against their fee, that is not how accounts work, if I want to charge you £1,000 but you also want to charge me £500 we don't just both agree to invoice each £500 because my fee is £1,000 (income) and your fee is £500 (expenditure) and the net might well be £500 but you can't net off one from the other. Based on the "old" method you describe above, it appears that you are indeed acting as a principal, you are buying in the services of the actor and then reselling those services, whereas the first part of your post you describe what appears to be an agent relationship where you are just the middleman between an actor and a studio. Once you decide which business model you want to operate under, then get your contracts to reflect that business model and then you may be able to deregister for VAT. It'll be impossible for HMRC to answer this when you don;t know whether you are an agent or a principal, I think you want (and need) to be an agent, link below to HMRC guidance to help you with the concept that is "agent". https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-taxable-person/vtaxper36580

The "this supply subject to reverse charge, customer to account for VAT" requirement is an EU VAT rule, there is no requirement for an EU or rest of the world supplier to put any wording on their invoices to non-EU customers. You should know already that if you are a business and buy (most) services from outside the UK, the supplier will not charge VAT (place of supply is where customer is, supplier treats as outside scope of VAT) and your purchase is subject to reverse charge by default and so you would be expected to reverse charge any such service invoices by default. Some EU suppliers may retain the special wording as a template on all their invoices regardless of where the invoice is going to but to answer your question, there is no legal requirement to add the special wording where the customer/recipient is not an EU based business. There is also no requirement for a UK supplier to issue an invoice with any special wording to any EU or rest of world business customer, but the wording is helpful as it tells the recipient they have to do something, so whether there is a legal requirement or not, I tend to advise my clients to put some form of reminder/wording on the invoice so as to help their customer, purely as a convenience for the customer (and it also helps during a HMRC inspection as HMRC may ask why certain sales are not subject to VAT and some sort of wording will at least explain to HMRC why).