Late at the lab tonight, it was a last-bus night and that's dodgy on Sundays. With double the expected sample load this week I have to make up extra media.
Something else occurred to me also. I need to sort out what I'm likely to need over the next few months and buy it now before the tax-cutting Tories boost VAT. It's not easy with perishables but with a lot of stuff, I can stock up. I can't reclaim VAT because I'm not registered and am staying below the threshold for registration because I can't be bothered with it. It's a tax on turnover, not profit, and I pay quite enough tax as it is. I have looked into it and it won't benefit me at all, because what I sell is thought, not a tangible product. I can't apply VAT to the reports because they can be classed as books. So VAT would be a pointless expense.
All of which means I will be limited in my babblings for a few days while I work out what I can safely stock up with and what is likely to hit its expiry date before I use it.
Anyway, that's my problem, not yours.
What is my, yours and everyone's problem is whether the Cameroid-Clegg-Collective is still operating on the same basis as every single official for the last 13 years. Spite.
Tiny Blur didn't win by appealing to the 'working man'. In fact, the Absurdist party he created has spent most of its time in office turning the 'working man' into a pariah. No, the Blur kept winning by appealing to the aspirational middle classes. They turned to New Labour for those tax credits and so on. Those traditional Tory voters saw something more Tory in Blur than in the Tory party.
Early indications are that they were right to vote left, because under the Cameroid, the the right are more left than the left have ever been. So far left that an alliance with the Lib Dems is not only possible, but has happened.
Now, the Cameroid-Clegg Collective have been told by their own Tax Guru that they are hitting 'middle class voters' too hard. Why would they do that? Revenge on them for voting for Tiny Blur's grin? Is it, could it be, that same old spite we've grown so used to over the last decade? Is it really that leftie spiteful vengeance, now applied by a party we thought were on the 'right'?
Cameroid has declared himself a leftie. No wonder Barry O'Blimey likes him so much.
We have not climbed out of the frying pan to land in the fire.
We're still in the pan.
10 comments:
Now, the Cameroid-Clegg Collective have been told by their own Tax Guru that they are hitting 'middle class voters' too hard. Why would they do that?
For the same reason the apocryphal bank robber gave when asked why he robbed banks: "That's where the money is."
The underclass are net takers; the working class can't be pushed too much further (or they'll riot); the rich can take their ball and leave whenever they like.
But the nice, trusting, docile Boxer that is the middle classes. Ah, they can still be squeezed harder. People with something still to lose don't riot.
LI.
About VAT, if this is of any use to you, the whole point of not registering is that you do not have to add VAT to your invoices, and so your 'charges' for your services can be less than they would otherwise be. Thus, you have a competitive edge. Of course, you cannot reclaim VAT on your business purchases, but, if your business is more reliant upon your own work rather than 'selling on' things that you buy, then any VAT that you can reclaim on your business purchases would be comparatively small. It is for this reason that it is to your advantage not to register until you reach the legal limit.
Does that make sense?
Dear Mr Leg-iron
Re: registering for VAT. If all or most of your customers are businesses which are VAT registered, or government, which runs on VAT and other taxes, then registering voluntarily is worthwhile if your VAT payments on business expenses are more than the cost of administering the VAT accounting. A competent bookkeeper would be able to do it in a couple of hours a quarter for a full return and you get the additional benefit of a tidy set of accounts (if you haven’t already). Simplified accounting schemes ought to reduce the time. Any VAT reclaimed above the cost of administration drops straight onto your bottom line as extra profit (part of which gets recycled back to government, but that’s life).
An additional benefit of voluntary registration is that currently customers know your turnover is less than £70k pa. By registering they won’t know your turnover and you could appear a ‘bigger’ business than you are. This may be relevant if you are trying to grow, because some businesses won’t deal with very small businesses and not being VAT registered is a bit of a giveaway.
If the new rules on giving advice that reduces the gummint’s tax take are in farce*, I’ve just become a criminal.
Oops.
DP
* I have just decided that stupid laws come into farce and are enfarced by enfarcers.
And the middle class wont riot It will suicide, and then self destruct
Dave has done with the Conservatives what Brecht suggested to the East German government concerning its electorate: dissolved the membership and created a new one. Dave has dumped the conservative element of his party and replaced them with the right of the LibDems.
Accordingly, since he does not rely on the votes of the saving, law-abiding, working minority of people who just want to live and let live, he can squeeze them dry. It's brilliant and, I guess, chimes with Dave's genuine ambitions. Oddly enough, it would not have been possible had the Conservatives won a majority of seats.
Anonymous is right. I registered for VAT at the start (1998) to look bigger. Most of my business is with other businesses, schools, local councils, etc., so paying VAT doesn't matter to them.
Are you sure your reports will be classed as books? Isn't the work research, therefore the actual cost of the literature will be just a small part of the bill??
**I am not an accountant and my advice should be thoroughly checked in case you do something you regret!
Interesting points for and against VAT registration.
I'll stay clear of it for now but if I ever want to look bigger than I am, it sounds like a good way to do it.
Cumclog is a Labourer...
...and Tony was a Tory, old news.
You can see how close Labour is to the BNP:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/ukparties2010
...hence the splenetic Orwellian hate for them that issues.
Having analysed the results a bit, it seems to me that there is a chunk of society that wants a "working class conservative party"; with some libertarianism and entrepreneurial focus... perhaps a British Republican party would fill the void of apathy that has distorted election results since the Tory collapse during the 90s recession.
Looks like Labour is going to have to choose a complete Kinnock for a leader now, so there's a real opportunity for a well funded "workers & business party" on the "less authoritarian right wing" between the LibDems and the Tories; something that appeals to the positive selfish aspirations of all classes. Perhaps the Condom Coalition is the "Alliance" progenitor of such a party... in Japan, this kind of party ruled solidly for decades, it could well happen here too, if they play it well... look out for new branding, the LibDems with a blue background on their logo; the Tories with a lorra lorra green... all that blue yellow and green is very jolly and unthreatening, all they have to do is come up with a allthingstoallmen name, such as "Progressive Conservatives", or "Liberal Green Patriotic Party" etc... Labour would just look like a relic of the 20th century.
I'm contemplating developing a better "political compass software" over the summer as content for my own prospective site, as this one to me is somehow not working... I keep coming out as slightly to the left of centre between the three "moderate" nationalist parties (SDLP, SNP, PC), and yet I could only ever vote BNP in good conscience.
I've resigned myself to being an Fascist Bigot with a warped Rational Crypto-Centrist bent.
One part of VAT registration for a single-person enterprise is customers.
That they are registered for VAT doesn't mean all that much in these days of form over substance. The more incompetent and form-filling they are the more they look at gross rather than net figures. If you cost £1,000 and the VAT registered chap costs £1,100 you have an advantage.
But I don't think that's the way you approach it, and nor should it be. Why get involved in the hassle of quarterly returns and scrabbling through receipts to see what you can off-set? It really isn't worth the trouble.
VAT - if you can be classed as producing books, the VAT rate on your sales is 0%.
This would mean that you can reclaim the VAT on your business purchases (which would reduce your costs) and charge £0 on your sales.
I suggest you look into this again with your accountant.
Peter
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