Sole Trader splitting business for VAT purpose?

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SineWave

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Would love somebody to propose an solution to the following and comment on the two "options" I can think of.

1. Married couple, both would be non-PAYE.
2. A product service offering that would be aimed 70% towards commercial concerns and 30% towards domestic.
3. If the domestic was treated as a standalone it would come under the VAT threshold and hence offer greater competitiveness in pricing.

Leaving aside any LTD company formations, could;

A) The sole trader operate two seperate "Businesses", that being that domestic service would be filed seperately under VAT threshold than commercial service?

B) Could the domestic concern be registered under one partner's name (XYZDomestic) and the commercial one (XYZCommercial) under the other parner's?

Are A and/or B an option, and if so what are the pros/cons?

Many thanks......
 
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A) If the sole trader is registered for VAT, he or she must charge VAT on all sales.

B) Not sure about this. One sole trader can indeed be VAT-registered and the other not. But the Revenue Commissioners are not fools, so be careful about trying to "engineer" a solution. For instance, you won't be able to deduct VAT on costs for the domestic portion of the business. And the partner who is not VAT registered should be the person doing the actual work for the domestic customers, rather than just being a "front."
 
Thanks for feedback extopia. Honestly wasn't trying to "engineer" a solution, but just trying to find one within system.
I hope some other posters have comments on feasibility of option B.
 
Spouses may be separately registered or not as the case may be for VAT, so one could have a VAT registered business and the other have a non-VAT registered business. However as partners in same business then it is the partnership which gets the VAT registration and brings all sales into VAT if over the threshold. To do as you suggest there would want to be 2 separately identifiable businesses with accounts for each.
 
Graham_07 said:
Spouses may be separately registered or not as the case may be for VAT, so one could have a VAT registered business and the other have a non-VAT registered business. However as partners in same business then it is the partnership which gets the VAT registration and brings all sales into VAT if over the threshold. To do as you suggest there would want to be 2 separately identifiable businesses with accounts for each.
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Ideal way would be that domestic could be a sole trader -say wife. Obviously profits may be lower and wife might not use her full 20% band.Therefore non domestic could be a partnership of both with wife taking some of the profit as well to bring her up to the higher rate band.Important for seperate accounts, invoices, etc.. Revenue, for instance, would not allow the VAT registered business claim any of the VAT that related to the domestic business.Seems like a lot of bother. Best to register as a partnership for the full business. Use the time saved to generate extra sales.
 
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