Twitter has been a great resource for inspiration for my blog posts in the past, and the start of this week provided me with another good subject. This time, it was a tweet from @RhinoAluminium: Anyone else fed up with consumers asking to dodge the VAT? You know the ones…
This brought a few of us onto the topic of whether or not to deal with people who ask if they can pay in cash to avoid paying the VAT. In my own personal view, I don’t entertain those sorts of people. We are a “by the book”, straight up and honest company who try and do business in the right and professional way. Of course no one likes paying VAT, but it’s a charge we all have to take. Why should that be any different for anyone else and why should I expose my business to less than honest customers? If anyone asks me if we would take cash to avoid VAT I simply tell them no. If they don’t like it, they can go buy from a dishonest company somewhere else.
The crux of this matter is about being professional as a business and knowing to avoid these types of customers if you can. You or your company are trying to run the enterprise as well as possible. Getting bogged down in dodgy cash deals isn’t going to help the reputation of your business.
If you’re a small business, small enough not be VAT registered, then cash deals aren’t so bad. But I would say most double glazing companies are big enough to be VAT registered and so should be charging VAT on all jobs. It’s also a matter of being brave enough to say no to customers who ask. Many sales people are easily scared and are not strong enough to turn down the request of a customer. But you’d be surprised how many clients do back down after you’ve politely told them they can’t have what they’ve asked for.
Primarily though, we as an industry have to do things the right way, and that includes carrying out contracts in the correct way, inclusive of VAT.
All thoughts on this topic are welcome. Do you take cash deals? Do requests to knock off the VAT wind you up? All comments welcome in the section below.
We’re the same as you…do it by the book but at least you have peace of mind. We do get asked on occasion about cash deals. If we have already priced the job then we have to say no (as we are VAT registered) and obviously to reduce the quote by the amount of VAT means losing our profit. Sometimes, like you say, the customers come back anyway. However, if a customer asks for a deal up front we may say okay depending on the size of the job…but then we give them our quote just showing no VAT (although… Read more »