We have a tractor, quad and chainsaw that all use fuel. we do not use red diesel as we have no tank. I presume that we can claim VAT on that fuel. Also not sure what category to put it in. misc expenses, misc motor expense or motor expense (fuel). Any advice.
Also if I claim business mileage on the 45p/mile basis, can I claim VAT back on the pro-rata fuel ?
Tractor, quad and chainsaw should be asset on balance sheet, any cost on them e.g fuel should be part of direct cost, you can create new nominal on it. If you are vat registered then then you can claim vat on expenses provided you take into account any partial exemption calculations if applicable
thankyou for your help. Is the partial exemption yu are talking about the CO2 VAT element, thanks,
NO, if your business has activities which are exempt for vat purposes or you trading in exempt good / services as well as vat able items
so for clarification, our sales are meat and livestock only. there is no VAT on them, so are you saying we cannot claim any VAT on the fuel we use in our business relating to these sales. If so, fine, thats what I understood and have only claimed a mileage rate so far. If not, can I back claim?. thanks, tracy
Sales of meat and live animals for food are zero rated, not exempt, so you can claim input vat as normal. The difference being that zero rated sales are treated as “taxable supplies” at a rate of 0%, whereas exempt sales (mostly stuff like postage stamps, bank charges, etc.) aren’t considered taxable supplies at all.
(I’m not an accountant but my business is a shop selling mostly zero-rated food so I’ve had to work all this out for myself)
This may seem like a silly question but reading back over the thread it’s not entirely clear - can you confirm that you are actually VAT registered in the first place? If you aren’t registered then you can’t claim back the VAT you’ve paid out, but from what you’ve said in this thread it sounds like you would benefit from registering anyway even if you’re not required to do so.
You should probably talk to an accountant, their advice may well pay for itself if it turns out you can claim back the VAT on stuff like machinery you’ve bought in the last few years.