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Most places already have trusted relationships with traders who they sell part-exs to; you'll get a pretty brutal cold shoulder from most if you turn up asking to make money off them. The car industry is full of complete sharks, if someone is trying to be your friend most of the time they're trying to con you. Be your own man, expect no favours and work hard. Best of luck to you. In terms of valuations - do you own homework. CAP & Glass mean nothing these days. Glasses less so

Hi I'm very new also you aren't going to be able to bigger dealers and buy cars, people probably on here will have been doing it for years, so why would they upset them and sell to you? One trader I know that's buying from bigger dealers could spend 50/75K in a day, can you do that? Also he will keep what he wants and rest will be traded again by the end of the day. Autions Good luck with that unless your a mechanic or very knowledgable you will end up getting bid up and paying top fees not what traders pay. Also no doubt there will be issues with the cars

Hi Jimbo, I use Glass's guide, only the mobile app though. It's a handy tool for part ex appraisals when a customer is overly optimistic about their vehicle worth. Gives a bit of back up to what i'm telling them sometimes. It's only a guide though, there is so much more than what the book says when considering values that only experience can give you. As for retail values...it's not something I use a guide for. You get to know what something retails at over time. I've never used CAP so cannot comment but the Glass Mobile App is pretty decent for quick, basic valuations IMO, I wouldn't want to base my prices off it alone though.

Hi Jimbo,the bottom line is record keeping is very important because HMRC have always been suspicious of us.You will get some good advice on here and here is some more.S.O.R - all vehicles you offer for sale should be recorded in your stock book whether you sell them or not.The reason for this is,when you are inspected by HMRC 3 or 4 years in the future,they may have a copy of your advertised stock at some given time which they then compare with your stock book records.Typically,they could find a S.O?R car which is not recorded in your stock book,which 3 or 4 years on you may not be able to remember as you handed it back.I am not trying to put you off,but the danger here is HMRC could take the view that this is a regular occurrence and then assess for undeclared VAT+penalties+interest.........It happened to us.

Jim ... You know what they say about the pennies ..... ! Spot on with using book keepers and accountants ! Concentrate on the job in hand let the experts do their bit .. Cheaper and more efficient in the long run !! As I explained to some one a few weeks ago doing their own valeting to save £50 , Took them sometimes 2 days to get the car mint but saved £50 not paying someone else .. I pointed out they could earn a lot more with their time dedicated to buying/selling/marketing their cars/business than saving £50! #JustSaying

Jimbo £833.33 + 20% VAT (£166.67) = £1000

Hi Jimbo, no problem It's £166.67 of Margin vat because you are only paying VAT as a percentage of your profit . Every car dealer & trader will be registered under the Margin Vat scheme if they are selling used cars if there turnover is over £85,000 per annum The simple way to look at is purchase price less sale price divided by 6 equals what you are due on vat If you are selling any other service , let that be any service you will have to charge out vat and detail that on a vat invoice with your VAT number. When I started up 14 years ago I tried to do all the accounts myself, nope! Get a book keeper to do your monthly's and vat every quarter and an accountant to check your accounts, we all have strengths, use their's! Jim

Jimbo VAT - Catches lots out - quick calc is profit /margin £1000 - divide by 6 = £166.66 that is the vat element ! We're all here to help shout away ! Umesh

Hi Jimbo, Not sure how you are planning to do your accounts, either yourself or via an accountant, but my advise would be to get yourself a cash book ledger and keep your own records whilst your are in the early stages of growth. If you message me I can give you the name of the people I get mine from, its about £30 and lasts a full accounting year. Firstly you need to record every single purchase you make i.e. Recon costs, RFL, Fuel, stationary, warranty etc and break the VAT down on each entry. Then you need to record all monies received each month against sales. You then balance all this (to the penny) against your bank statement every month, known as a bank rec, its sounds complicated but its not after you've done it a few times. Secondly you need a stock book, in here you record, on the left hand side, all details of the car stock you have purchased including the purchase price. On the right hand side you record the details of who purchased the car together with the sale price. It is hear you have a VAT column where you record the VAT on the margin, you can do it the way Jim mentioned, personally I take my margin, say £1000 and times it by 16.667%, giving a VAT margin of £166.67. Every quarter you tot up all the VAT you owe HMRC from your stock book and then tot up all the VAT you claim back off HMRC from your cash book, the difference is how much you owe them. The only thing you need to be aware of is there are certain things you can't claim VAT back on, stamps from the post office is one thing (not sure why?), you may want to check with your accountant or contact HMRC direct on this, Ive always found them very helpful. If you need anymore help please get in touch....Hope this helps.

Hi Jimbo welcome to the Forum. I'll cover each question in the same order as asked. 1. The margin vat scheme is only for second hand goods inc cars and antiques ( which are often cars too) your always best to keep a separate stock file for each car you buy this would inc the purchase invoice regardless if that comes from a private individual or other garage, when you sell it you also file in the same stock file the sales invoice which means you have now two figures to use. If you bought the car at £5000 and sold it for £6000 (forgetting about any prep costs at this stage) on paper you would make £1000, however margin vat means you pay vat on your margin/profit that you have made which is £1000. Therefore the easy calculation is divide 1000 by 1.2 to get 833.33 which is your retained profit after vat, in turn you have to pay £166.67 of vat on that sale. Your vat period will determine when you pay this but you only pay margin vat on profit made at gross level. If your 3 months vat period is Jan-March then for all cars sold within that period you add the vat eminents together and pay the margin vat at end of period (normally due a month later) there is a place on your vat return for margin scheme vat. So yes treat it separate. Remember if you make no profit you pay no margin vat, however if you make a loss you can't recover vat lost. 2.All other business expense like cost of sale , servicing , stationary etc you would claim back the vat on these invoices in the month you bought them , again outing in your claim for all purchase within the period of Jan-March. This would get back the vat you have paid out. 3. Unless you are buying nearly new , ex rental or vans which have different vat elelments they are called vat qualifiing , then regardless of where you buy from you pay margin vat on profit. 4. Hopefully number one covers this 5. Depending on how you treat the sor sale. E.g. If you display a car for someone and agree a price that you will pay for the car once it's sold then if you are buying in the car into stock the same margin vat will apply between buying and selling. If however you display car for customer and only take a commission on the sale and don't put the sale through your accounts ( be careful) but you would invoice the customer your services but plus vat on the invoice which the customer pays you and you declare on vat return as a sale of service. 6. The choice is yours, however be very careful because if you are selling a car from your forecourt it is deemed a sale to the public which means you are responsible through the Consumer Rights Act. Always best to agree a purchase price and put a margin across and treat it like one of your own cars, keeps HMRC happy. not sure if that all makes sense, but yeh once you are retailing cars and paying vat, all of a sudden the world gets that bit harder, all the best Jim