paying the vat or not..

jinka

Lads,
Anybody buy a bike from the North using a vat number? I have been told that you can give a vat number
(providing its your business etc) and get the bike vat free. Is it that easy or does the taxman come a running?

scottreynolds

jinka wrote: »

Lads,
Anybody buy a bike from the North using a vat number? I have been told that you can give a vat number
(providing its your business etc) and get the bike vat free. Is it that easy or does the taxman come a running?

If you buying the bike for your business then its fine and easy and that simple.

jinka

Cheers,
That easy? I asked the bike shop in Newry and he didnt know!

RobFowl

jinka wrote: »

Lads,
Anybody buy a bike from the North using a vat number? I have been told that you can give a vat number
(providing its your business etc) and get the bike vat free. Is it that easy or does the taxman come a running?

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/money-and-tax/tax/duties-and-vat/value-added-tax

It's in there some where. You end up paying the VAT anyway but at Irish levels which are usually higher then UK ones.

blorg

As a VAT-registered business you can reclaim VAT on your purchases so if it is a legitimate business expense it doesn't particularly matter if you buy in the North or here... Only difference is whether you pay the VAT and reclaim or whether you don't pay the VAT in the first place.

Whether it is a legitimate business expense or not (and how willing/able you are to jusitify that in the case of a Revenue audit) is another matter however.

Trojan

I'm in the same boat. I think it's pretty hard to justify a bike as any kind of business expense. I guess maybe you could investigate "marketing".

Have a read of http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/employee-expenses.html

I reckon I'll get my accountant to put my new commuting bike through the bike to work scheme.

If you figure out a way to legimately claim it, let us know here.

IrishCathal2008

Trojan wrote: »

I'm in the same boat. I think it's pretty hard to justify a bike as any kind of business expense. I guess maybe you could investigate "marketing".

Have a read of http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/employee-expenses.html

I reckon I'll get my accountant to put my new commuting bike through the bike to work scheme.

If you figure out a way to legimately claim it, let us know here.

Cycle to work, then it is a business expense.
You may have to pay BIF, for the company bike.

RobFowl

Trojan wrote: »

I'm in the same boat. I think it's pretty hard to justify a bike as any kind of business expense. I guess maybe you could investigate "marketing".

Have a read of http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/employee-expenses.html

I reckon I'll get my accountant to put my new commuting bike through the bike to work scheme.

If you figure out a way to legimately claim it, let us know here.

Would like to see how that pans out. I'm self employed and it seems the scheme is only open to directors and employee's.

IrishCathal2008

RobFowl wrote: »

Would like to see how that pans out. I'm self employed and it seems the scheme is only open to directors and employee's.

We live in a time where the loop holes are getting smaller and smaller.

scottreynolds

RobFowl wrote: »

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/money-and-tax/tax/duties-and-vat/value-added-tax

It's in there some where. You end up paying the VAT anyway but at Irish levels which are usually higher then UK ones.

Actually my business regularly buys goods from the UK with no VAT cost to the business. Business, when buying goods from another EU country, don't need to pay the local countries VAT.... because a blorg says your entitled to claim it back even in Ireland.

RobFowl

scottreynolds wrote: »

Actually my business regularly buys goods from the UK with no VAT cost to the business. Business, when buying goods from another EU country, don't need to pay the local countries VAT.... because a blorg says your entitled to claim it back even in Ireland.

I believe thats if its needed for business use. Hard to see how you could apply that to a bike !!
I'm in a business where we can't register for VAT

Beasty

IrishCathal2008 wrote: »

Cycle to work, then it is a business expense.
You may have to pay BIF, for the company bike.

Cycling to work is not a business expense (in the same way as you cannot claim for car expenses when driving to work). The new scheme exempts it from the Benefit in Kind legislation, but not from VAT. Hence VAT cannot be reclaimed (unlike the UK scheme).

Victor

RobFowl wrote: »

I believe thats if its needed for business use. Hard to see how you could apply that to a bike !!

Courier? Someone who has to visit multiple sites per day? Beats taxis or petrol.

scottreynolds

Victor wrote: »

Courier? Someone who has to visit multiple sites per day? Beats taxis or petrol.

Yeah, My arg is that, and I have two business, is that my bike is for travelling to and from client sites. I didn't buy my bike through my company but my accountant has asked me to keep a record of company related bike trips. She's doing my accounts next month so I'll get a better idea on how things went.

Lumen

I'm not an accountant, but I've always operated on the basis that if you buy something as a business expense, you'd better be using it only for business reasons.

I'd rather not worry about being publicly photographed on a "business bike" at every boards spin/sportive/race.

Life is too short to worry about getting (metaphorically) cavity searched by the Revenue.

Ryaner

scottreynolds wrote: »

Yeah, My arg is that, and I have two business, is that my bike is for travelling to and from client sites. I didn't buy my bike through my company but my accountant has asked me to keep a record of company related bike trips. She's doing my accounts next month so I'll get a better idea on how things went.

There is a mileage rate for bikes, the same as per cars. My guess is you can claim business trips on the bike using it. It'd pay for the bike over a year if you do actually travel to client sites with it.

Ham Sandwich

Why not buy it with the bike towork scheme? You'd save way more that way, and they dont really check out you are using it for work, just make you sign saying you will

jinka

im saving the cycle to work for a more expensive bike you see.

scottreynolds

Ham Sandwich wrote: »

Why not buy it with the bike towork scheme? You'd save way more that way, and they dont really check out you are using it for work, just make you sign saying you will

You can't if your self employed .... and its not getting a JOB just for a cheaper bike.