Accountants, your attention please...

Spot on, that man! I must admit I only noticed it because when entering the purchase in my basic 150 quid accounting package, I couldn't make the VAT and total agree with the retailer's invoice, no matter how I juggled it. I should make the point that every item in the purchase was VAT-able at 17.5%.

I am querying this with them, and have yet to recieve a non-boiler-plate reply. If this is being applied to all UK sales, quite a lot of extra money is being generated, as the retailer's trading name is similar to the name of a large river in South America.

I really hope I'm wrong, and that there is some sensible (or failing that, bureaucratic) explanation.

Sir Alex,

I just came from the hardware store where the checkout clerk admired my neat handwriting (on self-serve bulk bags of nuts and balls- speaker isolation nerdiness) and asked:

"Are you an accountant???"

I was caught completely off guard and apparently the other shoppers found my demoralized and horrifed facial expression funny!

I just looked at my last invoice from an online retailer with the same name as a large south american river:

Subtotal of items: £15.48

Postage & Packing: £3.34
Giftwrap: £5.08
---------
Total before VAT: £23.90
VAT: £1.46
---------
Total for this order: £25.36

What I'm now confused about is that VAT total seems to be far too low. By my calculations if they are charging 1.46 vat then the total excl vat should be £8.34.

Is VAT different for books or P&P? or am I doing something really silly or are they just giving me Marks money?

I think books are still 0% VAT rated along with magazines etc. Due I beleive to a reluctance to tax knowledge etc. But I think this will change in the future.

Yours in Music

Syd

Rest assured gentlemen that if the common law in the UK is at all similar to that prevailing over here, there exists a "constructive trust" over all money collected as tax, irrespective of the actual tax due. Hence, Amazon is required to hand that extra money over to the commissioner as if it were taxes properly collected.

Consider it your personal public works donation

Judd

Ah -- that's more complicated. As far as I understand it, if you buy just books, then since the entire order is zero-rated, the shipping charge is also zero-rated. If OTOH there is even one item in the order which is not zero-rated, then the entire shipping charge attracts VAT at the standard rate.

"Gift Wrap" (dons baseball cap, cue irritating drum machine and comedy "bass line") is viewed as a "non-essential" and therefore attracts VAT at the standard rate, so its inclusion in an order causes the shipping charge also to attract VAT, even if the order otherwise consists solely of zero-rated books. Bastards.

It looks as if you just bought books, in which case the VAT would be calculated as 17.5% of 8.42, which is the total of the P&P + Gift Wrap (wazzzup, boom thud scratch), or 1.46. In this case they appear to have got it right...

I have now received an email from someone called "custserv03" informing me that my card will be refunded the sum of 1.33.

Although obviously I welcome this, I can't follow the maths! I would have expected the refund to be 0.16 -- what bloody planet do these corporates live on?

Can anyone see their logic?

Best;

Mark