oh, and another thing... :lol:
you may ask "what if I sell my car to my neighbour? Do I have to charge him VAT, and then send the VAT to the government?"
No, you don't, lol, anyone can have a bussiness, or sell stuff, up to a value of about £40,000 per person (I think), and you don't have to charge VAT. Obviously, the bloke you sell it to doesn't know the difference, because he doesn't care whether it has VAT in it or not, he just cares about how much it cost in total.
Something to add to my last post...
An example. My Dad is a courier. When he fills up his van with gas (by which I mean REAL gas :lol
, the casier doesn't offer him the choice to pay VAT or not. He gets charged it anyway. Then, at the end of the year (or month or whatever) he claims that VAT back from the government (using a form called a 'tax return'), because he shouldn't have paid it in the first place.
I think maybe I've gone a bit too far, but you get the picture.
Tim