Thank you for visiting www.vatexchange.co.uk and we hope this is the first of many visits.
This site aims to help you find answers to any queries about VAT whatever the size and type of your business, or the nature of the query.
It’s designed to help in those situations when you need to know where to find information on a particular issue and you just want to know where to start looking. You might be stuck on a particular technical point but don’t want to pick up the phone to your VAT consultants as you know that the time will go on the clock and you’ll end up paying for it one way or the other.
This is where www.vatexchange.co.uk can help. You can post a query on the VAT forums and we’ll do our best to help with a quick and practical answer. The purpose of the forums is to help you find the information you need to answer your query and provide an additional resource to help you deal with everyday VAT issues.
In most cases we’ll briefly explain the main principle involved and/or tell you where to find further information about your query on the HMRC website. Of course some issues will be too complex to deal with on the forums and in these cases we’ll tell you where to start looking on the HMRC website and recommend that you take professional advice. But in most cases we will be able to help with some general information and either way we aim to reply within 1-2 working days.
We don’t give advice on specific transactions, neither are not trying to replace the need to take professional advice. (We offer formal consultancy services ourselves (LINK HERE)). It’s simply to help when you need a bit of information on a particular subject and don’t know where to start looking or you are stuck on a technical point.
We always recommend that you take professional advice in any situation where the transaction is complicated or the VAT liability is costly, particularly where it concerns land or buildings, partial exemption or VAT liability, or at any time where you need to be certain that you’ve considered all of the potential issues.
As well as asking for help, you are also welcome to make your own comments in reply to existing queries on the forums, or just use the forums as a place to have your say about anything VAT related. Simply set up an account and either post a new query on the forum or post your reply to an existing query.
Site contents
The site is a work in progress, but here are the following contents:
As the site develops, we will add more content and would be pleased to take suggestions from you. Please email your comments to feedback@vatexchange.co.uk.
Terms and Conditions for the use of this site.
Registration on the site is free but by registering an account, you undertake to abide by the terms and conditions detailed below at all times when using the site.
While we hope to help anyone who asks for help with VAT issues, we do not accept any liability for any VAT errors, penalties, interest or other costs arising as a result of relying on information given on the forums or elsewhere on the site. Any information given on the site is intended as general guidance only based on the information provided, not a substitute for professional advice and we always recommend that professional advice should be obtained when advice is required about the VAT issues relating to any specific transaction(s) or any planned transaction(s).
Only “Marie” and “admin” are able to submit posts on behalf of “VATExchange”; messages from any other contributors do not represent the views of “VATExchange”.
Posts made by third parties express the views of the author, and” VATExchange” will not be held responsible for the content of any message. We do not accept or endorse material posted on the forums by third parties nor do we accept any liability for VAT errors, penalties, interest or other costs arising as a result of relying on information provided by third parties.
You will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise offensive in any way. We will not tolerate any malicious, impolite, or offensive comments of any kind on the site and will remove any such comments and cancel the account concerned. We will of course attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, but it is not possible for us to review all messages and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for their content.
The owners of “VATExchange” reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.
We reserve the right to cancel any member accounts without notice at our discretion.
Any posts which recommend any kind of unlawful VAT avoidance schemes will be removed. VAT is a tax and we all have to pay it, it’s part of life and we don’t condone any kind of unlawful avoidance or evasion.
Whilst we might at times criticise certain actions by HMRC – for example what we think is an unfair ruling - overall we believe that the Department and its employees do a very good job at administering and collecting the taxes. So we won’t accept any kind of personal attacks or unkind comments about the people who do this work.
All of the information on this site is copyrighted and subject to normal commercial restrictions. You are welcome to print or forward any of the material (for example the Beginner' Guide to VAT) as long as you do not distribute or profit from the material and that you credit the author (Marie Stein) and link back to www.vatexchange.co.uk.
We reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions at any time at our discretion.
About Marie Stein
www.vatexchange.co.uk is owned and run by Marie Stein.
Marie Stein is a VAT specialist with over 25 years of VAT experience. She started her career with a VAT officer before working as a VAT consultant for all of the 4 big accountancy firms (albeit in their previous incarnations) and has wide experience working on UK and international VAT issues.
She regards herself as a general VAT practitioner and has advised clients from a wide range of business sectors, including retailers, property developers, manufacturers, financial and professional services as well as charities and not-for-profit organisations.
She has worked for all businesses of all shapes and sizes, from multi national groups to partnerships to sole proprietors and understands the different issues facing differen types and sizes of businesses. The volume of transactions incurred by large businesses means that attention to detail is essential and that they have robust accounting systems that can deal with large amounts of information while identifying transactions that don't fit into normal VAT accounting rules.
As for smaller businesses, she has a simple approach: that the size of the business rarely reflects the complexity of the VAT issues; very often the VAT problems faced by smaller businesses are much more difficult to solve than those of bigger businesses.
In either case, she works best when advising in conjunction with the business's exisiting advisors when she can build up a relationship to learn about the client's business affairs.