20% VAT Increase

Now we have the VAT Increase to 20% on standard rate VAT.
The standard rate of VAT increased from 17.5 % to 20 % on 4 January 2011.
Any sales of standard-rated goods or services that you make on or after 4 January 2011 you must charge VAT at the 20 per cent rate. If you have a cash business and calculate your VAT using the VAT fraction you must use the VAT fraction of 1/6 on your standard-rated VAT inclusive sales from 4 January 2011. That is to get the VAT out of the inclusive gross figure multiply your gross inclusive figure by 1/6 (1 over 6). The older fraction was 7/47 for the 17.5% vat rate.
The change only applies to the standard VAT rate. There are no changes to sales that are zero-rated or reduced-rated for VAT. Similarly, there are no changes to the VAT exemptions. Any sales you make at these rates are unaffected by this change.

A note for those who are part of the vat schemes available will need to be aware that this effects the following schemes:
Flat Rate Schemes (FRS)although you multiply the gross sales figures by the FRS rate for the business to get the vat payable, but it is useful to find out what the vat amount is included if you make inclusive sales. Simply multiply the sales figure by 1/6 to get the vat figure included.
Margin Schemes -where you apply the fraction to the the difference between the gross sales and the purchase price of the second hand item (margin), to get the vat amount payable.The margin scheme has many restrictions but is useful for businesses that cannot reclaim the vat on their second hand purchases for resale, but, nevertheless have to be VAT registered. Beware of the fact that the standard approach has to be used alongside the margin approach if vat is reclaimable ie vat included on a purchase(separately stated on the purchase invoice). Simply refraining from claimimg the vat back is not an excuse to include in the margin scheme.
Still enough on this happy VAT accounting and take care on the tax points - more about that later.

ROAD TOLLS WITH NO VAT

No VAT currently charged
No Vat is currently charged on the Dartford Crossing. The 2003 leglislation applies to privately operated tolls and "Le Crossing Company Ltd" who currently run the Dartford Crossing are contractors acting on behalf of The Highways Agency who are the operators and outside the scope of the 2003 leglislation.
If it is of any help the following tolls do not charge VAT:
Cleddau Bridge
Dartford Crossing
Erskine Bridge
Forth Road Bridge
Humber Bridge
Itchen Bridge
Mersey Tunnel
Tamar Bridge
Tay Bridge
Tyne Tunnel
And the following ones do charge VAT:
Aldwark Bridge
Clifton Suspension Bridge
Dunham Bridge
Rixton and Warburton Bridge
Severn River Crossing
Skye Bridge
Swinford Bridge
Shrewsbury (Kingsland) Bridge
Whitchurch Bridge
Whitney on Wye Bridge

Ex police car

I have just bought a car that was an ex police car and found that, interestingly enough, that they do not have to be taxed and thus do not require MOT certificates. That meant that to tax the car I had to go to the local vehicle licensing centre. That was quite a simple task as you needed all the documents as usual but needed to complete a form or two. one form was for licensing and the other form was for classifying the vehicle.it would have been useful if I hadn't posted the new owner form on the log book, as they would have processed the change of class there and then. However, I will still receive a new log book one for the change of owner and one with the change of classification from police to diesel. The car also needed an MOT, so the dealer put that on for me as I would need it for the tax on the car.
I would like to know if the car as police car was insured with them as I seem to believe that government cars are self insured, with funds put aside. Apparently that's more cost effective.
They would obviously need to be third party insured for other drivers incidents, but I will continue to look out for this information.
This car was a Ford Mondeo diesel 1900 130. I used to own one of these a few years ago, but when I test drove this car the power is amazing. Its the 130 bit meaning 130 BHP, the other car I used to have was a 115 BHP and therefore as suspected those police cars always have something done to them to make them fast.

Its amazing what you discover online. I have recently bought another car to add to my private hire fleet in Colchester. I already have a Vauxhall Zafira, so decided to buy another one of these, as its always better the devil you know, don't they say?

Well, having trawled the internet for good value 4 year and younger cars, I found a decent one to enquire upon in Sittingbourne in Kent. What coincidence, I used to live in Sittingbourne and my brother lives only half a mile away from this actual Garage and to add Ironicy to the story the garage owner's name is the same name as my brother Nigel. How much of coincidence is that aye!

The car that I have purchased has turned out to have some pre sale complications as follows:

The back passengers door wouldnt open and the road spring has broken. I had experience of the road spring, even in other cars its common but the back door was news to me. So, after two days I called the garage to ask how things were going on the pre sales work and they reported that the main dealer at vauxhalls were requesting further authority to spend extra 2-3 hours on the wiring loom in the back door and seating area. This would mean a lot of money as main dealers are expensive on their hourly rate,its got to be serious. This made me consider whether the car has serious damage due to maybe an accident or something.

My wife and a driver, explained that day, that you can check details of pre owned cars for previous history such as a previous write off, accidents and the like on the internet. I then decided to look on the internet and found the AA do vehicle checks for £19.99. I proceeded to check my vehicle and found no specific situation had occurred to bring on concerns. I then thought there must be someone else that has had this type of car fault. So I continued to search the internet.

I found that the wiring loom in the back passenger door, has been found by others to be faulty and break in some situations and takes just over the hour to fix. Its the wire that goes between the door and the car as it flexes every time the door opens.

I am only glad that I checked to see if all the doors opened and found that this fault exists before I bought it , otherwise it would be me paying for the repair. Lets just hope that they put a better quality wire loom in. There is one good thing, the wiring will have a guarantee/warranty from the main dealer.

To add one last thing to this story, over the years I have bought cars and I have found within a short time you find out things. Such as heater or air conditioning, don't work, so now I always open doors, windows, turn on heaters, air conditioning etc as a pre check. The AA vehicle check wouldn't have picked up this door problem or any of the other things above.

On top of all this, when I was once a car salesman, in my spare time I used to go over each of my cars I had for sale and find the good and bad points especially to find out how they work. When I went over the Vauxhall Zafira above, I checked that all the seats laid back, folded to allow people in and out checking all in operation. The car salesmen didn't even know that the seats did all this and that surprises me because if you are a good salesman you should always know your product.

Mobile phone tarifs, 0800 numbers and blue tooth radio.

I have recently needed to review my mobile phone tariffs, mainly because of the kind of use in the business and the T mobile contract on one of our phones, has come to an end.
To clarify we have three phones all used in the business with one being Virgin network monthly contract at £10.00.
We run an accountancy business, "Barrie Ingram Accounts Ltd"and a Taxi (private hire) "Barries car Service" commonly known as "Barries taxi" as an additional income stream. The virgin mobile phone is used for the divert via a 0800 number and one of the T mobile numbers is used a s direct divert for the Accountancy 0800 number.
I will talk about the 0800 numbers later as there is a useful money saving trick here, but for now lets stick to the mobile rates I have discovered, that work for me.

Initially when a new phone was needed for the taxi cab, I kept an eye out for all the mobile deals but when Virgin networks placed an add on the bottom of their bill for the TV and Broadband monthly invoice, that we would get £10.00 of our Bill for the Tv and Broadband if we signed up for the mobile SIM only deal for £10.00, that seemed a NO Brainer for me. It was £10.00 for a monthly contract with 200 minutes and 100 texts per month. in summary a free use of phone for the Taxi.
I would like to talk about the 0800 number now, as it seems the right place based on the fact that the phone calls recieved all get diverted from a know advertised taxi number to a mobile which is usually an expensive ordeal. But one day, shortly after the new virgin SIM was up and running I received one of those random sales calls asking me if I had a o800 number for my taxi firm. I said no, but then his great skill in selling, converted my need into a sale. I liked the idea that much I bought two 0800 numbers of him.
His idea was that by attaching the virtual 0800 number to a mobile number directly, which can be changed at any time with no extra cost, I can divert my landline calls to it at no cost to me. i thought that was bloomin marvellous, divert calls for nothing thats the best thing I had herd for a long time.
I bought two numbers of him for 149 pounds each with loaded minutes of 700 a month, which again can be upgraded at any time, with a small price to negotiate. One 0800 was used for the taxi phone the other was used for the Accountancy business. so now i have no divert bills when seting all my calls to divert. Really usefull when you are out and about with the taxi and dont want to miss a call. After all calls mean money in the taxi business.
Now back to the mobile tarrifs. Found that the T mobile signal in the office was a little week so i was looking to change the service provider. After tapping in Google "mobile phone signal" I found that a web site gave me the best signals for my area under my postal code.
I chose Orange and searched for a deal and just like before a sales call came and I decided to talk through my needs. Initially the offers were for 3 phones at £30 amonth 24 months contract. I was interested in the Blackberry as they provided an email and easy text solutions and I was interested in the free phone to phone communication and that email could be cheep solution to providing jobs to a prospective driver in the cab.
Anyway the end product was I would keep the phones I have albeit slightly old but worked fine and get a new SIM only deal from Orange shop down the town. the deal was £15 rolling month for 200 mins and unlimmited texts. great deal for me cos thinking of the taxi job texts i was intending to utilise the service for along with the improved signal, great! Also, the fact that it was a monthly contract i was able to try out for a month the new signal. i could effectively cancel 30 days notice one day after i had taken the contract out so only have the contract 31 days. So all was good.
Seeing that my T Mobile monthly bill on my run out contract was £29.50 the change to Orange sim only has given me a saving of £14.50 (£29.50-15.00= 14.50). the other t mobile phone has been extended for a dsicout to £8.50 to a 18 month contract. So you can see that keeping old phones and extending can give a good deal which is almost like sim only deal, but i was already with T mobile. Orange have suggested that 36 montyh contrcat could be offered for £10.00 for similar provided mins and texts but i quite like the rolling month contract for the moment.

As an additional comment I bought a Sony MEXBT2500 car radio, that takes your telephone calls via blue tooth and you can hgear iot over the speakers. best ever way to receive calls - look out for the next blogg to talk ablouth efun i have when calls come through for taxis when i have pasengers aboard. this sony only cost about £ 100 but its brilliant.