Claiming back VAT for material i've brought on builders account

[Moonshine]

I am buying materials through my builders trade account at a large BM, i am paying by card and he is providing me the receipts.

 

The plan is to use these receipts to claim back the VAT, however i think that there is an issue that the cash invoice has the builders invoice details on it not mine. The delivery address on the invoice is the address of the build

 

My concern is that if HRMC look at these it seems that the builder has paid for them and not me, and they won't accept the VAT claim on them?

[Dave Jones]

who are you paying by card, the builder or the merchant ?

[Moonshine]

17 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

who are you paying by card, the builder or the merchant ?

merchant

[Dave Jones]

from https://www.gov.uk/vat-building-new-home/how-to-claim

 

If an invoice is not in your name, you’ll need to explain why. If an invoice is in your business’s name, you’ll need proof that you’ve refunded the amount from your personal bank - for example, a bank statement.

[Moonshine]

3 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

If an invoice is not in your name, you’ll need to explain why. If an invoice is in your business’s name, you’ll need proof that you’ve refunded the amount from your personal bank - for example, a bank statement.

 

So i can explain the situation why its not in my name, but will need to provide a bank statement showing the same amount going out of my account on that date. That sounds doable. Also the delivery address is my address so that should close the circle (i presume)

[Dave Jones]

maybe easier to just get an account with the merchant.

[nod]

You shouldn’t have a problem 

When they ask if you want a reference 

Put the house name or plot 1 

and the name of the road 

 

[jamieled]

I would try and get the invoices redone with your address on if possible.

 

Look at it from HMRC's point of view. If they accept the invoices with the builder's details on them from you, they could also risk paying back the VAT to the builder when he reclaims under the scheme for construction companies (potentially when he makes an honest mistake with his accounting or deliberately).

 

For what it's worth I did the same thing with one relatively low value invoice on our build and it was rejected because of the address issue.

[Canski]

Have any of you used a main contractor for the complete build ? Surely his invoices are zero rated for the build structure and standard rated for additional items that are not part of the build fabric ? What would happen if you set up a company to build your house for you and reclaimed everything as you go ? Professional fees are not reclaimable I hear.  If you had a company arranging everything would they charge you the VAT on these whilst reclaiming it at their end ?

[DragsterDriver]

On 19/10/2022 at 17:00, Dave Jones said:

from https://www.gov.uk/vat-building-new-home/how-to-claim

 

If an invoice is not in your name, you’ll need to explain why. If an invoice is in your business’s name, you’ll need proof that you’ve refunded the amount from your personal bank - for example, a bank statement.

I hope this is correct, a couple of merchants have been using my trade name and won’t correct the invoices. They were paid with my private bank card though. 
 

felt a cold chill when I spotted it 😵

[jack]

1 hour ago, DragsterDriver said:

I hope this is correct, a couple of merchants have been using my trade name and won’t correct the invoices. They were paid with my private bank card though. 
 

felt a cold chill when I spotted it 😵

 

There's no guarantee how HMRC will treat it, but we had a few invoices in the name of someone other than us.

 

One was an over-the-counter transaction at a builder's merchant, the invoice for which was in a business name completely unknown to us. We assume they did something like (accidentally?) using the account of whoever had the transaction before us.

 

Another couple of invoices were in the name of our tiler. That was because his trade discount was so ridiculously good that we would still have been well ahead if the VAT reclaim had been refused.

The last was some wood we bought for one of the contractors, which for some reason was supplied with an invoice in his business name rather than our name. We just missed this one at the time.

 

In all cases, we made a note about it in the covering letter, and all amounts were allowed without question.