Glass is naturally formed when certain types of rocks melt as a result of high-temperatures such as volcanic eruptions, lightning strikes or the impact of meteorites, and then cools and solidify rapidly.
According to Roman historians they became aware of the existence of glass accidentally in the region of Syria around 5000 BC. This short history looks at the birth and evolution of man-made glass and the new developments in smart glass. (more…)
I was having a conversation with someone last week and they were telling me about the wet room they have planned for their house. I was stumped, I had no idea what a wet room was.
Well now I know. A wet room is just like a walk in shower, or really it is a walk in shower. Now I know and it can be added to my 43 things. I have just come back from holiday, and we liked staying in Holiday Inns - their bathrooms are like this. They have tiled under-floor heating, a drain in the floor - so that water can run anywhere while you are using the bath or shower.
Wonder if my landlord would spring for this?
Well VAT has dropped 2.5% - but that does not mean you stop your vat reclaim. Reclaim VAT is something that is missed by many companies of all sizes. If you pay VAT on goods or services outside of the United Kingdom you cam claim this back.
Now the process can be long and tedious - perhaps that is why not many companies do the paper work themselves - and perhaps why many do bother claiming at all. I am writing this as a friend of mine runs a VAT reclaim service. They work on a no refund, no fee basis. So it is great for companies looking to control costs in these times of the credit crunch.
Call Val at Global Tax Reclaim and let him do the rest, it really is that easy.
This money is all pure profit for you and your business. So give him a call today on 00353 1458 7460
European Union VAT
Invoicing to other EU customers is fairly simple; however there are items that must be put on European invoices. If this is done correctly it will save time and money trying to reclaim VAT from other European authorities. Firstly an overview of how VAT works intra-community - i.e. between European Union member states:
When one company in one member state provides goods or services to another company in a different member state, the seller does not add VAT to the invoice but instead zero rates it and registers £0.00 for VAT. It is the job of the buyer to pay the correct local VAT rate for the purchase directly to the authority which handles VAT in their country and this is done through their VAT declaration. For example:
You sell something to someone in Germany for €1,000. On the invoice, the figures would be as follows:
The client declares this to their local VAT authority and, in Germany for example, they would pay the local rate of VAT to them. They would then pay the VAT €160. At the end of the quarter or year, this figure is balanced against a credit for the same amount (and their other inputs and outputs) and they would receive it back, essentially meaning that they never paid it. The way this is done is probably different in each member state, but this does not affect the seller. Buying is another matter.
You need to do the following:
* Make the invoice from Your Company Ltd at the company’s registered address (in the country of origin).
* Below the address, include your company’s registration number and prefix it with a two digit country code (for the UK, this is ‘GB’, i.e. For a company with a UK company number of 01234567 this would be GB-01234567). In Germany these numbers are known as CIF (Company Fiscal Identity) numbers.
* Put the client’s address in and also include their CIF number (this could be the buyer’s national insurance / social security number if they’re an individual or their company’s registration or fiscal number, if they represent a company).
* Itemise the invoice in pounds or Euro, whatever is agreed. It is easier to use Euro for all countries that use this currency and pounds or Euro for any others.
* Include sub-total, then VAT at 0.00 Euro/pounds and the total.
* Your bank details for making the payment (try to avoid cheques if possible as they are often extremely slow to process; and rules on a cheque’s acceptability can vary between countries greatly). For the bank details you should include at least the account name, the name of the bank and an IBAN (International Bank Account Number); see below for bank details. If the client does pay by cheque, make sure it’s in either pounds or Euro and also sign the back of the cheque before sending it to the bank to be paid in. Cheques can take a long time (around 4 weeks) to clear between two EU states.
Bank details for receipt of payments
Theoretically, to make life easier, it is a good idea to have a current accounts in both pounds and Euro. Give the euro account details if the billing and payment is in Euro and the sterling ones if it is in pounds. That way all the figures correspond and accounting is made easier. There are, however, drawbacks of so-called currency accounts, such as not having on-line or telephone banking facilities with them.
To receive the payment you need give your customer your IBAN (International Bank Account Number). The IBAN number is formed by prefixing a international code to your bank sort code and account number. The format is CC-NN-BBBB-XXXXXX-YYYYYYYY, where CC is a country code (in this case GB), NN is a number identifying the bank, BBBB also identifies the bank, XXXXXX is your sort code and YYYYYYYY is your bank account number. Here’s an example:
We phone our bank, Big Banking Corporation, and they give us the IBAN prefix of GB-31-BIGC, meaning.
You are obliged to declare to HM Revenue & Customs any monies you receive for payment against EU invoices. This is added to the VAT Return in box 8 - purchases made from other states go in box 9. If you complete this box, HM Revenue & Customs will then send us an EU Sales List, which you will need to complete and send back to them.
Purchases
You should be eligible to pay no VAT in member states, giving your VAT number, but only if the final destination of the goods is the UK. In this case, we would then let HMRC know.
However, the final destination means that if I buy myself a new computer while living in Germany, where it will be used, I cannot claim a zero VAT rating as the final point of sale is Germany and German VAT applies, even though my company is a UK company. I then have no way of getting this money back unless I become self-employed in Germany, in which instance I have to pay social security and even then, it won’t be my company that pays for it, but myself, or rather me as fiscal entity in Germany. To get the money out of my company, I’d have to invoice them for it, which means I’d have to charge German VAT.
For more information on European VAT and how to make a VAT Reclaim of European VAT contact Global Tax Reclaim.
Credit control is the debt management function within companies.
Credit controllers can do some or all of the following:
Send out invoices - most companies now have this as an automated function however the credit controller is often still responsible for ensuring the whole process. They though send out copy invoice on a requested basis, this is often one of the tactic used by companies not to pay their invoices on time - by calling or waiting to be called and saying at that point they have not received any invoices, it is a common practice in UK businesses. Credit controllers are often the first point of contact when something goes wrong and consequently they deal with the credit notes, also getting legitimate credits done quickly helps to get the rest of the invoice paid as companies will refuse sometimes to an invoice if there is an out standing credit due.
Send out proof of delivery. POD’s as they are commonly referred to are another delaying tactic used by companies not to pay their invoice on time. Many companies routinely ask for POD’s for all their invoices, and they will do this just as the invoice is due for payment and it is then used as a reason not to pay due invoices.
Send out letters. Collection letters are one of the most common and cheapest form of debt collection. As well as being cheap there are also quite ineffective as most will put them directly into to bin. However this is part of the collection process that have to be run through if an account is going to end up going to the legal department or before it is outsourced to a debt collection agency. Copies of these letters have to be kept to prove in court the company has tried to collect and used all reasonable attempts.
Make telephone calls. Making credit control calls is one of the largest part of the job in credit control. Using the telephone to contact customers is expensive, not for the cost of the call, but for the time used. Telephone collection is best used at large problem accounts and main accounts. Often companies will have many telephone collectors, for example credit card companies who have bank of telephone operators calling customers to collect on unpaid debt.
Reconcile accounts. This often happens when a credit controller joins a company, they find that the accounts have not been allocated correctly and they have to reconcile whole accounts often going back a year or more - this finds invoice that have not been paid and discovers mis-allocations, which are common within the industry.
The above is just a sample of credit control duties, see the main site for a breakdown of the whole credit control function.