www.iva.co.uk

My partner is a builder (not VAT registered) but he is about to start selling books as well and wants to be VAT registered for the book business. Because he will be a sole trader on both businesses he can't be vat registered on one and not the other and does not want to have to charge VAT on his building business. The way round this is to have the book business as a Ltd company or LLP (limited liability partnership) The less complicated way is to have an LLP as you don't pay corporation tax but he needs a business partner to go down this route. If I was to go on it as say a 1% partner would this affect the IVA that I am on? He is not on an IVA. Many thanks in advance

Hi,

Not sure about this one so hopefully one of the experts will be around to help but I would think that anything financial that links you together could affect his credit rating.

Taking a 1% share in an LLP will not affect the IVA, but HMRC may still see this as a way of your partner avoiding being VAT registered. You may need to consider taking a higher shareholding to avoid this if questioned. And then your profits would need to be considered as part of your income.