[Walter Mitty]

Many think a vat reg is an achievement like some sort of milestone of success. It`s not its a level of increased admin and state control of you business. I would always avoid at all costs. The only milestones is your business have become large enough for the state to be interested in it.
The truth of the matter is you will never make more money out of what you are allowed to claim.  It`s a system for the tax man with no advantages for the owner. Just much admin and more state interference. It like a new partner that takes but never adds a penny.
I have heard of so many on herer announce the big day. I know i`s a load of crap as   you to find out and will be difficult to turn around.
These are the facts of big is not always better.

Couldn't agree more.
I find it quite amusing when they "announce the big day" It beggars belief the intellect of some of these "big boys" LMAO

The thing is that if you want to grow the business into something that is worth something - and to me that means to provide an income without having to clean windows myself and therefore an income into my "retirement" - you have no choice but to go past the threshold and deal with the consequences of that. It isn't a badge of honour, it's just a fact of growing your business.

There are quite a few on here that will be interested in how many customers I lose as a result. Some, like you and other naysayers will no doubt be happy at my losses and say "I told you so", but I actually never believed I would lose many. I think those afraid of passing the VAT on will find my experience useful.

Although I've no current intentions of going past sole trader level (therefore, no VAT), if I did have such plans, I would go straight into the more complex 20% (currently) scenario.  This is because if I were to jump that hurdle, I wouldn't want to mess around again later on when forced to go the 20% route.

[Smudger]

Then you would quite simply be throwing money away, paying 20% of your turnover when you can offset very little in return is non sencical it's bad enough at the lower level.

Darran