Hi Saabrina,
Getting the customer to buy material doesn't work, also the fact that they can only make one vat claim at the end of the job makes it difficult as well. If you were spending 600k building a house and you were given the choice of paying the vat as you go and claiming back at the end or paying a contractor who can zero rate the invoices it is a no brainier which one you would choose.
The current system of only being able to make one claim at the end is in my opinion ridiculous.
I am waiting for somebody further up the TD company to look into my case.
I would have thought they could just look up the dictionary definition of windfall and that would tell them that a vat return is not one, especially when the whole TD is worked out on profit at the end of the year of which the vat returns play a major part. If you take 7.5kish out the accounts every 3 months there is obviously not going to be a lot of profit at the end of the year otherwise I wouldn't have had to enter a TD.

The VAT return would be getting counted twice if they view this as a separate windfall but also base your income contribution on your profits, which are partly as a result of you receiving these refunds.

As you say, that would obviously be unfair. I reckon you might get a different answer once you have had the chance to explain the situation to someone at your Trustee firm who has more experience in dealing with trading situations.

I don't know for certain but surely only a refund in personal income tax would be classed as windfall. VAT refund is a refund on cash you have paid out for materials that are zero rated and is just being returned. Just my tupence worth.

It's all down to individual circumstances Black Night.

For example, if you'd signed a trust deed then received a VAT refund for previous business activities that had now ceased that might be seen quite differently.

I am still waiting to speak to somebody more senior in the company about this.
In the meantime my accountant has written a letter explaining why I am vat registered and the fact that the vat refunds are business receipts (the same as if I was due to pay vat it would be treated as a business expense)and are not unexpected and will be accounted for in end of year accounts.
Surely it's quite straightforward

Hi jt222.

Trust deeds involving "traders" such as yourself can be a fair bit more complex than normal trust deeds.

I think most firms would probably deploy their more experienced staff to work on them.

Hopefully this all gets sorted out for you soon.

I still haven't heard anything from anyone on this. Is this level of urgency common in the world of TD companies or have I chosen a really bad one?

I'd imagine they'll be closed jt222.

Might be worth a chase in early January to check someone is looking into this for you.

Thanks for reply. I will do that

Would you be surprised to hear nobody has got back to me about this?
Do you think they are still on holiday or is it more possible that they don't actually give a monkeys?
I think the best plan is just to keep my head down and make my payment every month.