Claiming VAT on car lease

Claiming VAT on car lease

Didn't find your answer?

Recently we bought a second hand van total price including VAT being £7188. I was wondering how we can claim VAT as the van is leased, total value of the leasing being £8188?

Many thanks!

Replies (28)

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By User deleted
31st Jul 2015 15:02

Make your mind up please

"We bought" and "the van is leased" are contradictory.

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Replying to andy sutcliffe:
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By Ana2013
31st Jul 2015 15:03

We purchased the car. It's leased.

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Replying to Duhamel:
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By User deleted
31st Jul 2015 15:07

More conflict

Ana2013 wrote:

We purchased the car. It's leased.

Those two statements also contradict each other!

EDIT - I'm out of here before I get grumpy

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Replying to Duhamel:
RLI
By lionofludesch
31st Jul 2015 16:51

To explain

Ana2013 wrote:

We purchased the car. It's leased.

You either buy something or you lease (rent) it.

If you rent a house, you don't own it.  A car/van is the same.

The correct answer to your question depends on you letting us know the exact nature of the transaction.

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By cheekychappy
31st Jul 2015 15:04

If it is leased, please tell us what type of lease it is.

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Replying to DJKL:
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By Ana2013
31st Jul 2015 15:06

48 months lease.

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By cheekychappy
31st Jul 2015 15:05

Oh Jesus

We have inconsistent information. Now it's a car?

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Replying to adam.arca:
Quack
By Constantly Confused
31st Jul 2015 16:42

Hehe

cheekychappy wrote:

Oh Jesus      

cheekychappy PM | Fri, 31/07/2015 - 15:05 | Permalink

We have inconsistent information. Now it's a car?

 

For some reason that amused me more than it should have.

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By cheekychappy
31st Jul 2015 15:09

Ana, dearest, I am not interested in the sodding length of the lease.

 

Is it an operating lease or a finance lease?

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By Ana2013
31st Jul 2015 15:11

To make it clear. It's a leased VAN, purchased for business purposes. The question is if we can claim the whole VAT at once or it should be on a monthly base?

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By Ana2013
31st Jul 2015 15:13

Finance lease

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By JCresswellTax
31st Jul 2015 15:20

honest question

Do you have an accountant?

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Replying to Jo Nokes:
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By andy.partridge
31st Jul 2015 16:03

Yes

JCresswellTax wrote:

Do you have an accountant?


 . . .  but then again, no.
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Red Leader
By Red Leader
31st Jul 2015 16:08

questions questions

These type of questions are starting to devalue Any Answers.

I clicked on the question expecting to get a well informed discussion of the area.

I've avoided the other threads complaining about this issue but this is another straw on my saggy back.

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By andy.partridge
31st Jul 2015 16:10

It's official

'There could well be aspects of your situation that might be of interest to our members and we are happy for you to participate in discussions on AccountingWEB.

Our hope is that you will get some constructive answers, but as you have anticipated the site is populated in the main by qualified accountants, some of whom may grumble that you're an outsider looking for free advice. 

This site is an open forum and there are no requirements for professional qualifications to take part. However I thought it might help to alert you to other members' sensitivities in case you do encounter any negative responses. Please don't be put off by them, and I hope that you are successful in your quest to find a sympathetic accountant.'

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Replying to Philip Fisher:
By JCresswellTax
31st Jul 2015 16:45

Where is that from Andy?

andy.partridge wrote:

'There could well be aspects of your situation that might be of interest to our members and we are happy for you to participate in discussions on AccountingWEB.

Our hope is that you will get some constructive answers, but as you have anticipated the site is populated in the main by qualified accountants, some of whom may grumble that you're an outsider looking for free advice. 

This site is an open forum and there are no requirements for professional qualifications to take part. However I thought it might help to alert you to other members' sensitivities in case you do encounter any negative responses. Please don't be put off by them, and I hope that you are successful in your quest to find a sympathetic accountant.'

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Replying to Tax Dragon:
Quack
By Constantly Confused
31st Jul 2015 17:17

John

JCresswellTax wrote:

andy.partridge wrote:

'There could well be aspects of your situation that might be of interest to our members and we are happy for you to participate in discussions on AccountingWEB.

Our hope is that you will get some constructive answers, but as you have anticipated the site is populated in the main by qualified accountants, some of whom may grumble that you're an outsider looking for free advice. 

This site is an open forum and there are no requirements for professional qualifications to take part. However I thought it might help to alert you to other members' sensitivities in case you do encounter any negative responses. Please don't be put off by them, and I hope that you are successful in your quest to find a sympathetic accountant.'

John posted it in another thread to warn someone that they should be thick skinned on here.

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/question/advice-new-build-pro...

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Quack
By Constantly Confused
31st Jul 2015 16:41

Finance lease

It's late on a Friday, so take this with a pinch of salt (as in, check it!) , but I thought with finance leases you reclaimed the VAT element of the payments each month, restricted to 50% of there was any private use of the vehicle (as in ANY).

 

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By John R
31st Jul 2015 17:26

Friday afternoon - feeling sympathetic

To OP - The majority of responders will be accountants in practice who are used to having to take great care about answering clients' questions as we know that definitions for tax purposes do not often accord with everyday English usage. If you were my client, I would want to see the invoice for the vehicle so that I could ascertain for sure whether it counts as a van under the relevant legislation. For example, a double-cab pickup would be described as a car by some and a van by others whereas for VAT  purposes, it could be a van or a car depending on various factors which I will not go into now. Similarly, I would want to see the finance agreement as they sometimes are described as a lease when in fact they are hire purchase agreements or vice versa. This is the only way we can be sure that we are giving the right advice - which is important as, if the client deals with something incorrectly, they could suffer significant financial penalties and will be quick to blame the accountant even if they wrongly described the position in the first place.

This forum is predominantly for accountants although increasingly it seems that non-accountants such as (presumably) yourself, raise queries. This is why some responders lose patience with individuals who do not clearly set out their question.

Usually, a quick way of establishing whether you can reclaim VAT on a van lease is that you should have been sent a VAT invoice setting out the VAT being incurred on each rental payment and you then reclaim the VAT over the period of the lease [EDIT but subject to a reduction for the actual private use (if any) based on a mileage log]. In the case of a car lease, again a VAT invoice should be issued but then you are only allowed to reclaim 50% of the VAT on each rental to cover private use (irrespective of the actual private use proportion).

If the finance does not amount to a lease, then you can reclaim the whole of the VAT on the purchase of a van in the VAT period covering the date of acquisition, but restricted for the private use based on the private proportion shown in your mileage records. In the case of a car that is not leased, generally no VAT is recoverable except in the case of certain taxis and driving instructors.

 

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By andy.partridge
31st Jul 2015 16:51

@ Joan

See the thread entitled 'Advice for new build property'.

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By User deleted
31st Jul 2015 16:55

50% restriction

Does not apply to vans

EDIT - I didn't read your post properly, John R. But my point stands in case anyone still has doubts.

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Richard Hattersley
By Richard Hattersley
31st Jul 2015 17:18

Mod here

Hi everyone,

Just letting you know that  I have messaged the OP informing them that this forum is predominately for accountants. Hope you all have a great weekend. 

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Replying to mrme89:
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By Anne Robinson
31st Jul 2015 18:53

Why all of a sudden?

Richard Hattersley wrote:

Hi everyone,

Just letting you know that  I have messaged the OP informing them that this forum is predominately for accountants. Hope you all have a great weekend. 

If they do this to every non accountant poster they will be working 24/7 (hate that expression but hey ho) since it seems that these make up the majority now. And then if they don't get the answer they like they post on UK business forum as well.

Plus very few posters come back and thank for the help. Rant over!

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By andy.partridge
31st Jul 2015 17:23

@ Richard

What does 'predominately (sic) for accountants' actually mean?. I am not picking you up on spelling  - although by mere mention it suggests otherwise - but interested in what readers are meant to glean from the statement.

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By cheekychappy
31st Jul 2015 17:29

Maybe they mean some of the visitors include software vendors, bookkeepers, tax professionals and other people that are involved in the industry (and the odd freeloader) that are not accountants.

I could be wrong though.

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Richard Hattersley
By Richard Hattersley
31st Jul 2015 17:35

@Andy clarification

Sorry Andy, I didn’t want to cause any confusion. When I said that, I was referring to what John had mentioned in a previous thread:

“We have designed the site to cater for a wide range of people within the profession, from practitioners and finance managers to tax specialists (and inspectors), software suppliers, consultants, academics and students.”

Hope you have a good weekend. 

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By andy.partridge
31st Jul 2015 17:49

Clarification or more confusion?

'AccountingWEB.co.uk is the largest independent online community for accounting and finance professionals in the UK - providing award-winning content and online engagement between members in a true community environment.

Accountants in Practice represent just under half of our visitors and we reach 75% of firms outside of the top 20.

Accountants in Business represent the remainder of our audience, typically working in smaller to mid-tier businesses.'

Anyone at Sift recognise this? Have a nice day.

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RLI
By lionofludesch
01st Aug 2015 17:00

I don't mind helping out the odd trader on this forum.

But I'd like them to have a sufficient understanding of the principles involved to be able to tell me what their problem is.

Otherwise, how can I be sure that the advice I give is right ?

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