B&Q Trade Account, VAT receipts

[Conor]

Yes, yes, I know B&Q is pretty much the most expensive place to buy materials, but we've one 2 miles from our site and of course only place open after 5pm during the week and on Sundays...

 

I was buying floor boards today and they wouldn't give me a VAT receipt with my details though the normal tills. Said I had to have a trade account . But I'm not a business. 

 

What's the easiest and least fraudulent way to convince B&Q to give you a trade account?

[PeterW]

That’s not correct. 
 

If it is over a certain amount a retailer has to give you a VAT receipt on request. 

[Conor]

4 minutes ago, PeterW said:

That’s not correct. 
 

If it is over a certain amount a retailer has to give you a VAT receipt on request. 

 

They did give me a VAT receipt, but had no way to put my name and address in it, which I understand you need when reclaiming VAT on a new build?

Edited December 22, 2019 by Conor

[nod]

Trade account is easy to set up 

Although I’ve several account with BMs BQ are handy for out of hours 

Cement is cheaper than most places and quite a few other thing 

While I don’t buy much from there 

Like you say it’s handy 

Worth ten minutes of your time to set one up 

Or you can use the till receipt 

It will have a vat number on it 

[nod]

5 minutes ago, Conor said:

 

They did give me a VAT receipt, but had no way to put my name and address in it, which I understand you need when reclaiming VAT on a new build?

We had quite a few receipts like that and we just made a record for ourselves what they where for 

None of them where flagged when we submitted 

We were paid out to the penny what we had claimed 

 

You will find that some of the smaller suppliers will just Wright goods on We would normal write on the back Silicon X 12 or similar 

All the bits of vat soon add up 

[newhome]

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

That’s not correct. 
 

If it is over a certain amount a retailer has to give you a VAT receipt on request. 

 

Only if both parties are VAT registered. There is no obligation to provide a VAT invoice to someone who isn't VAT registered although most companies will. Some are bloody awkward though. For small amounts HMRC generally pay out on a receipt as long as the VAT number is on it. I wouldn't risk it for a very big amount though unless I got the VAT invoice position agreed before purchase. 

 

http://stewartaccounting.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Do-you-always-have-to-issue-a-VAT-invoice.pdf

 

 

 

[Temp]

I had a few things from BnQ and they had no problem writing me a hand written VAT reciept. What happened was the girl on the till called over someone from the customer service desk and they wrote it out on a pad. However this was 12 years ago.

 

I suggest a letter to head office pointing out it would be a shame if BnQ lost the self build market for want of a few pads of forms.

 

 

[Temp]

2 hours ago, Conor said:

 

They did give me a VAT receipt, but had no way to put my name and address in it, which I understand you need when reclaiming VAT on a new build?

 

HMRC will accept til receipts for low value items. Can't remember the exact amount but its £30-£50 ish.

 

Till reciept get a mention in here..

 

 

Staple them to an A4 sheet so they can be filed in order.

 

Edited December 22, 2019 by Temp

[JFDIY]

Tradepoint account can be set up with a business card.........?

[SteamyTea]

10 hours ago, JFDIY said:

Tradepoint account can be set up with a business card

I had no problem setting up one.  Just made a bit of headed paper up.

Screwfix accepted my Part P certificate as proof.

 

I have found in the past, B&Q are not bad for price.  But the art of buying has changed now, bit of organisation and you buy online.  All this nonsense about 'needing' something at short notice is just lack of planning.  If a restaurant was run like a building site, you would be waiting 3 hours to get a burger as the 'lad' has popped down to Morrisons to get a lettuce.

[Barney12]

16 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

I had no problem setting up one.  Just made a bit of headed paper up.

Screwfix accepted my Part P certificate as proof.

 

I have found in the past, B&Q are not bad for price.  But the art of buying has changed now, bit of organisation and you buy online.  All this nonsense about 'needing' something at short notice is just lack of planning.  If a restaurant was run like a building site, you would be waiting 3 hours to get a burger as the 'lad' has popped down to Morrisons to get a lettuce.

Forward buying is the easy bit. Finding where you bloody put it is the issue ?

[Bitpipe]

11 hours ago, Temp said:

 

HMRC will accept til receipts for low value items. Can't remember the exact amount but its £30-£50 ish.

 

Till reciept get a mention in here..

 

 

Staple them to an A4 sheet so they can be filed in order.

 

 

If VAT is not explicitly called out on the receipt then you use part E of the claim form where you calculate it yourself. Part D is for standard VAT invoices.

 

I had a few that had no VAT number on them, I just wrote it on having found it elsewhere.

[Gone West]

14 hours ago, Conor said:

I was buying floor boards today and they wouldn't give me a VAT receipt with my details though the normal tills. Said I had to have a trade account . But I'm not a business. 

 

What's the easiest and least fraudulent way to convince B&Q to give you a trade account?

We submitted a lot of B&Q till receipts with our VAT reclaim and they were all accepted. B&Q asked me if I would like to open a trade account so I doubt you would have any problems setting one up. I always called myself 'SelfBuild' and it was accepted.

[SteamyTea]

Why don't BuildHub set up a trade account, then anyone can use it.

As long as it is cash only.

[Patrick]

@SteamyTea

That's actually a pretty amazing idea and could lead to a decent discount subject to turnover generated. Needs to be cash only but apart from that, any issues? Larger companies also have an account with the likes of B&q and have all employees shopping through that account.

[SteamyTea]

Do it for all those useless BMs as well.

52 minutes ago, Patrick said:

That's actually a pretty amazing idea and

I have lots more, not all are illegal, immoral or painful.

[Patrick]

I tried opening a topic collecting orders for items to do bulk orders for BH members ones. But wasn't very successful. I think it s too difficult, too much work involved to organise it. But signing up for a trade account and giving BH members the credentials (as long as its not a credit account) to get discounts - I think this might work. Let s see - trying a new topic for this.

[newhome]

29 minutes ago, Patrick said:

I tried opening a topic collecting orders for items to do bulk orders for BH members ones. But wasn't very successful. I think it s too difficult, too much work involved to organise it.

 

There was a bulk order once I believe, before I joined, for hot water cylinders. It's quite a bit of effort I imagine though as someone needs to negotiate with the supplier, you need multiple people to sign up, and then make a solid commitment. Most people are too busy to do it. 

 

When I was building my house, before we started in fact, we went to visit a self build centre in Scotland (Livingston I think) and they signed us up with trade accounts with many of their partners. I imagine they got some sort of kick back as they asked several times if we were finished. It didn't include B&Q though.