Claiming VAT back on garden office - working from home

[LittleBear01]

Hi all,

Can anyone advise? My husband is employed as a sales executive, but works from home all week apart from when he goes out to meetings.

We're having a baby, so need to convert the 3rd bedroom that is currently his home office into a nursery.

So we're going to get a garden office built. But is there a way we can claim the VAT back as it's for business?

He is not VAT-registered as he's not self-employed.

Is the only way to do it to ask his company to put the invoices through their books? Would this cause any tax implications for my husband?

Thank you in advance!

no way at all
sorry

You can only claim VAT back if you are VAT registered.
If his company paid for the work (& claimed the VAT back) they would either have to then invoice your husband (& charge him VAT) or if they were generous enough to foot the bill which I doubt then it would be a taxable benefit & he'd have to pay income tax on that amount.

DH works from home. Built a garden office to work in. You can put it through the company and claim VAT back but it can create all sorts of weird and wonderful issues with capital gains, so it's not always worth it.

Get your DH to speak to his accountant about it first.

The OPs dh isn't self employed so presumably doesn't have an accountant b

Oh, what a shame! Thanks for your responses.

We don't mind the cost of the garden office, but it seems wrong that we have to pay VAT on something that will be used purely for business purposes.

I used to run a business from home & paid VAT on everything.

Claiming it back isn't a perk of being in business. It's a recognition that a business charging VAT will effectively have to charge the end user several times over along the supply chain if they can't claim it back.

I don't understand you last post OP - VAT is paid on everything including items used for business purposes such as office furniture, computers, printers, software, stationery etc. What's the difference between those and a garden office?

Businesses can only reclaim VAT if they charge it.
THe tax man wins either way.