"John Rumm" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 04/10/2020 15:01, tim... wrote:


"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On 02/10/2020 21:24, John Rumm wrote:
On 02/10/2020 19:38, GB wrote:
On 02/10/2020 19:23, Chris B wrote:
I have just received an estimate from a tradesman (based on
photographs to save him the time of a visit) which includes £199
Plus VAT for listed parts.


The very same parts are available from suppliers listed on amazon
(not amazon itself) for £96.98 Including VAT and delivery.


I know that part of the tradesman's profit comes from the Sale of
parts but I always thought that they bought parts from suppliers at
trade prices and then billed for them at retail prices.

Is a markup on parts of well over 100% typical in the building
industry or is this a simple indication that he doesn't want the job?


So far I only have one estimate, as I don't like wasting 3 peoples
time for jobs of less than half a day, when only one is going to get
the job.

I am wondering if its worth getting any more or is this typical.



As a professional, I charged for my time. If I bought in services for
clients, I passed them on at cost.

Which if you literally do that (i.e. sell at your buy price), means you
lose money on every part sold - since procurement takes your time, and
bites into your cash flow, warranty replacements then just increase
that loss.

However, I got a quote from a gas fitter recently who charged a fairly
high rate for his time AND wanted to sell me a lot of parts with a
100% mark-up. This made his hourly rate of charge really high!

100% might be taking the pee, although it depends on the market and the
product.



100% is pretty well par for the course in the garage trade. My
ex-MOT-tester neighbour still does it for all the private work
he still does. And he charges VAT on the bull**** 'retail' price
and then pockets the extra 20% on the markup.

However perverse it sounds, charging VAT on top of a vat-able price for
products bought retail is the correct thing to do

If he is VAT registered, then yes he must charge VAT on sales, but at the
same time will reclaim VAT on purchases.

only if the item is a disbursement

if it isn't, then VAT should be charged on top of the VAT-added price

To be fair, this item should be a disbursement and if the supplier treated
it otherwise then that is a mistake

But it's a mistake that will result in too much VAT being passed onto HMRC,
not cash into the pocket of the trader, as the PP claimed

I can only answer the point as posted, not some other scenario that might
have happened, but didn't

In any case it seems that the scenario was that a non VAT registered trader
was adding VAT. so that is just plain fraudulent and not an accounting blip

tim