In the words of the theme from the TV series Only Fools and Horses:-

"No income tax, no V.A.T.,
No money back, no guarantee,
Black or white, rich or poor,
We'll cut prices at a stroke......"

Well here's a novel idea I've mentioned before, before, before and now I'm mentioning again - If you trade in any line of business then you must charge VAT - lets do away with this current nonsense £79,000 limit before businesses must register for VAT which just disadvantages most progressive businesses looking to expand and employ people, especially the ones who do charge VAT and trade within the domestic market as domestic customers usually can't claim VAT back on purchases and services and it plays straight into the cash in hand brigade who are desperate to stay below the limit and will do all they can to do so and deceive HMRC. 

HMRC must also do more, they are quick to clamp down on legitimate businesses they know they have full details for and have good accountancy records as they can easily check and spot the odd mistake, but they just can't be bothered or don't have the resources to go after the ones they should.

Customers must also play their part as well as far too many these days are more than happy to shop around until they get someone who is happy to cut corners in tax and VAT and oh believe us most of them will also cut corners on safety and quality as well.

London's top plumbing company Pimlico Plumbers are also sick of it as well, click on this link to view how even a multi-million pound company are stating more must be done to stop the cash in hand, no income tax no VAT brigade.

There is an interesting article on the BBC Scotland Website today about tradesmen carrying out work without charging VAT when they should be and some customers happy to accept this. 

Personally I feel this clampdown is well overdue and I welcome any moves the Scottish Building Federation and other organisations do to try and stamp out this unlawful behaviour.

While there are tradesman who do not require to charge VAT because their turnover is under the current £79,000 turnover threshold there are also tradesman out there who "work the system" by making sure they stay under the threshold by allowing the customer to pay for materials or by some how splitting their turnover over different registered companies.

So lets take the VAT set up a step further bringing me back round to my ultimate employer wish - if you are in business and trade then you must charge VAT, why should different companies or individuals be discriminated against just because of turnover. 

"You Trade You Charge VAT" and make it a level playing field it's as simple as that.

Plus in doing this and raising extra VAT from the current under the threshold businesses then the UK Government could possibly afford to reduce the VAT level back down to 17.5% or even lower.

We need to stop the unfair differences in the tax system which discriminates against progressive companies who are penalised against other busiensses by having to pay VAT and Employers PAYE(which is a different story you don't want to get me started on again.)