CHARGES

[oneandonlyMrsJones]

What the hell rachel? I don't know about you but I certainly pay tax. I am a sole trader and every year i do my self assessment, put in my earnings and my outgoings, and pay my tax due. Unless you earn 82k you don't need to register for VAT.

I'm not sure what the standing on all this is regarding claiming back the VAT but if it turns out that only those registered for VAT can do so then that would be extremely unfair. Why force small time businesses who do not earn anywhere near enough to register for VAT, into expensive and complicated quarterly hoop jumping?

I have just been doing a little reading on it and it seems this has put many small time companies out of business. I am honestly not surprised. It's draconian. And AW's handling of it all has been atrocious - they would have known about this for months and have obviously been fighting it. But they chose to spring the news on us and implement the changes in less than 24 hours.

Yes this is how it is and yes we have to get on with it. But it is not unreasonable to be shocked, dismayed, panicked, or suspicious. These are all perfectly natural and understandable reactions to sudden change which causes very real life implications.

As it happens I have not faired badly in my first shift back tonight, in fact I earned my goal in a very short time period having left my rates as they were previously. i actually dropped group a little as I could afford to do so, and found I still got majority privates as usual. i believe the extra 20% guys were seeing when they went to click into paid chat with us (which they weren't actually charged) yesterday may have worked in our favour as now the glitch has been fixed we look a little less pricey lol. So definitely don't drop your rates ladies, we will weather the storm and AW will bounce back... provided they can get on top of the endless glitches!

I agree. It was such a shock ! Astonishing !
Add that only last week I went legit and declared my self assessment status to the tax man.
( Didn t think I could make a go of it at my age - even though I feel as young as my shoe size )

My initial response was 'bloody hell !'
but then I saw the silly numbers my VAT inclusive numbers had gone up to. It was ridiculous.
Took ages to round them up and down to sensible numbers.

If you are planning to change your charges, up or down, google 'VAT calculator'and a useful tool can be found- so much easier ( and quicker) than the trial and error method I was using )

Then it went DEAD. Never had such a quiet spell.

So I lowered my charges to what they were before - but taking a big hit because they included VAT

but its settling out there and it was quite brisk yesterday and today- my takings are back to normal.

I plan to raise my prices again though but I ll give the guys a week or two to get their heads around it - absorb some of the shock for them.t was the suddenness that was alarming.

But this is not AW , its the law. Should have been paying VAT all along really, we ve been lucky to evade it so long.

Still think of it as a Wanking Tax though. Makes me smile !