Free Magazine to include Business Adverts

[MSM]

I am looking to start up and distribute 20,000 magazines FREE to every house in my area, every month.

In the magazine I would cover local news and offer business’s to advertise.

The printing of the magazines have 0% VAT

They would be delivered by Royal Mail who charge VAT

The printing of the magazines looks to be about £18,000 a year 

Royal Mail delivery will be about £18,000 a year plus VAT 

I would be looking to take about £10,000 in salary 

This would take the cost of design printing and delivering to about £50,000 a year.

So I ask 

• Do I need to register for VAT?

• Do I charge the companies VAT for their advert?

• Do I claim the VAT back on Royal Mail delivering?

• Do I need to be a Limited company or can I be a Sole Trader?

Thanks

[Trevor S]

From your description, the only income appears to be the sale of advertising. Provided that this doesn’t exceed the VAT registration threshold (currently £85k), you won’t have to register for VAT.

However, it may be beneficial for you to register voluntarily. If your customers are VAT registered businesses that are entitled to reclaim the VAT on their expenditure, you could add VAT to your charges, at no cost to you or your customers. Being registered for VAT would then allow you to reclaim the VAT you incur on related purchases.

As you haven’t started yet, I’d suggest that it would be worth discussing your plans with an accountant.

[Author]

Posts