In school IT shops

[jopijedd]

We're thinking about trying to set up a facility in the ICT office to provide our students with basic IT consumables - memory sticks, CDRs, DVRs, headphones - that sort of thing, and have met with a lot of opposition from a certain member of SMT who insists that we would be breaking VAT rules by doing so because the equipment must be specificially for educational purposes only.

 

I'm sure other schools must have similar facilities - i've already found others that sell blank paper, mp3 players and all sorts of stuff which could be used for things other than education.

 

What do the rest of you do in this respect?

[Pottsey]

We don’t do it. But when I was at collage we used to buy CD’s/Zip drisks off the collage so it must be possible.

[plexer]

As long as you sell the items at a price including vat you are not breaking the law.

 

Schools claim the vat back on things they buy in but if you then sell them to someone else you add the vat back as you will have to pay it to the taxman.

 

Ben

[crc-ict]

In that instance, could you not buy the things that you intend to sell on separate orders then not claim the VAT back on those, and avoid the hassle of collecting and then paying VAT to Revenue & Customs?

[t_guest]

hi all

as long as you sell them at a price including vat

you should be fine

[timbo343]

i know of a school that sells USB keys to kids at competitive prices and no-one seems to batter an eye lid. They used to sell floppy disks to kids too.

I cant see it been a problem.

[acrobson]

We considered the possibility of doing that at my place however the college finance and the LEA blocked us before we had even begun serious thinking on the mtter. That may just be my palce though, give it a try, put the feelers out. They can't tax you for that!

[Andrew_C]

VAT could well be an issue, and it is NOT as simple as stated above. If the school's accountants say "No", believe them. This is especially true if you are in a situation where partial exemption applies (schools may well be in this position).

 

It may be possible, but you will need to account for VAT in an acceptable format.

[GrumbleDook]

You may be able to sell ex VAT as these goods may be covered under the same rules as apply to pencils / pens / rulers / calculators.

 

As your Bursar for the latest guidelines on the sale of calculators and it is all in there.

[alonebfg]

one way you could do it is trough the pta or friends of the school and put it all through there accounts as they are all vat as they buy stuff for fairs to sell and all sort or other things and only the pta has a say then and any money you make goes back to pta i am sure the school wont mind that i know some schools that do it that way already.

[Sylv3r]

Please find attached a document regarding schools and VAT, its a decent sized document and ive had a brief look through it and cant quite find the suitable section for things such as ICT equipment - but im sure it will be listed somewhere.

_education.pdf

[MkII]

one way you could do it is trough the pta or friends of the school and put it all through there accounts as they are all vat as they buy stuff for fairs to sell and all sort or other things and only the pta has a say then and any money you make goes back to pta i am sure the school wont mind that i know some schools that do it that way already.

 

That's a great idea I'll ask about that one.

 

I wanted to sell USB Sticks to kids and thought it'd be a easy job of getting the Librarian to sell them in the school shop. The Bursar put large obstacles in the way and I gave up

[jopijedd]

Thanks for all the feedback, and especially to sylv3r for the pdf.

[jet5y]

Odd. We've been selling USB keys etc in our school shop for a few years now.

 

We've banned floppies so we need to provide some way for the kids to save their work off and so sell the keys really cheaply to them. I mean, the kids need them for their work in the same way as the pencils, rulers etc they sell there too!

[mrforgetful]

We used to sell floppies then just naturally added CDs and Memory sticks onto the list when they were more commonly requested.

 

We don't sell floppies anymore though.

[Skoggmeiger]

What is the difference between selling a child a packet of crisps and selling them a USB drive?

[mrforgetful]

The crisps are bought in specifically to sell on so the tax is all sorted. I presume.

[Skoggmeiger]

The crisps are bought in specifically to sell on so the tax is all sorted. I presume.

 

Surely they could do the same with the items they wish to sell in the shop then?

 

Good old British tax system. I'm guessing VAT is rather profitable on sales of Red Tape.

[plexer]

Somebody said it wasn't as easy as stated.

 

According to our business manager it is from the things we've sold on.

 

Ben

[Friez]

In a lot of schools the catering company is independant of the school itself (it has its own budget etc) and is hired under contract by the school. So they would be under their own rules regarding VAT.

 

There's an entire guide on VAT and what you can and cannot claim back and that can be found here: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.l1=1073858808&topicId=1073903424&r.l2=1073859245&r.s=tl

[SteveT]

You could "give" usb drives to the kids in return for a "fixed donation". :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: