UKH

Anyone know what “dial price” means? I’ve got a builder saying he can’t give me an invoice ahead of a part-payment being made because they have gone VAT registered and their software will include VAT, but that the originally quoted amount is the “dial price”. 

I can’t make any sense of that whatsoever. Any help appreciated!

The amount they quote over the phone without seeing the job so may vary after a closer look?

Could be, although it was a quote agreed after 2 site visits and they’ve now basically finished the work so that wouldn’t quite fit. I wasn’t particularly clear, but the “dial price” is the amount they are billing - they’ve not tried to charge us anything over what was quoted.

I’m just looking at my phone keyboard and realised it’s quite possibly just a typo. “Final” with the “n” missed out autocorrects to “dial” on my phone!

Sounds to me that he quoted it as a cash job and doesn't want to put it through his new books and be liable for the vat.

Let's say he quoted you £1k all in but if he runs it through his accounts software it would come out at £1,200. You won't want to pay the extra £200 because it wasn't in the quote so he would have to make it £833.34 plus vat and lose the £166.66 to the vat man

I suspect you might be onto something. It was a pretty garbled text we got when we asked for an invoice but getting anything much in writing has been a struggle. 
 

E2A Thanks, I think that does help make sense of his message about software which wasn’t quite adding up. 

Ah.... a nice very, very round number always makes me think it is a product of the good old random number generator that some tradesmen insist on using, as opposed to something they can break down and explain.

Not all, by any means, but certainly the cowboys do!

To be fair to them, it wasn’t a particularly suspicious number and out of a few people who came out to quote these were the only people who spotted that the wall to be removed was a supporting wall. The consequences had we gone with any of the others (who were cheaper) really don’t bear thinking about!

So basically you were both conspiring to commit tax fraud?

It always astounds me the number of people who complain about corporations such as Amazon not paying enough tax but who will cheerfully ask a tradesman for a price without the VAT.

Perhaps the OP wasn't planning to do this but it looks as if the tradesman was.

Does it really surprise you? I would have thought the attitude of "If the biggest corporation in the world doesn't bother to pay tax, why the **** should I" was pretty obvious.

The fact that Covid grants were calculated according to tax returns, you’d hope tradespeople  would now think twice before under declaring their earnings.

I’d be a bit silly insisting on having an invoice if I was planning to commit fraud. 

I didn’t think Dax was describing a transaction he’d carried out - I read it as an illusttarion of what he reckoned my builder might be up to

That's one huge leap to make based on the reported details.

There are certain things that have to go on an invoice when a business is registered for V.A.T. and that is usually taken care of by the software used by the business.  Since the O.P. talks about making a part payment it may simply be that the builder can't conveniently issue an invoice until the job is complete and he can invoice for the full amount.  It is perfectly possible that the builder's quote was the final price allowing for the V.A.T. without having calculated the exact amount down to the penny, and he will let the software calculate the V.A.T. owed in reverse and pay the correct amount to HMRC.

who is the you that you are accusing?  And on what evidence?

Totally random thought: B and Q Diall products and the cheapest own branders, so perhaps  ‘Dial Price’ could be trade slang for ‘the cheapest materials less labour.’ Or I could be talking bollox. 

Non vat registered builder doesn't need to charge vat. Circumstances change.

More likely it's the builder's excuse to feel out how a customer feels about a cash job but he could be straight, he could have outgrown his vat free status.

Jk