As STW is the font of all knowledge, a VAT question.
I recently had a firm in to cut some trees down. They provided me with a quote, I paid the deposit, after a delay while planning approval was granted the work was done.
Today the bill arrived. There is a cost for the work, plus VAT at 20%, minus the deposit that I paid.
However in the period between paying the deposit and the bill arriving VAT went up from 17.5% to 20%. Therefore should I be paying 20% VAT on it all – or should be be split between the two parts, i.e. 17.5% for the deposit and 20% the remainder.
I have no criticism of the company, they did an excellent job. They arrived promptly, worked quickly and cleaned up after them. I will be paying them tomorrow for the full amount that they have charged.
However as a point of interest I would like to know if this is the correct way of charging VAT? I do realise that asking the VAT man may get me the correct, but asking STW is far more interesting!
