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Got to agree Fonda, it would be worthwhile if we would swell the attendance significantly but this won't happen, not enough extra fans would come to make it worthwhile both financially AND worthwhile from a support perspective.

As a season ticket holder I'm pleased to see that common sense has prevailed and one of my requests in an earlier post several days ago has been acted upon, namely putting the date back to April 30 for renewing. At least this is after the last match and our fate will be decided.
Before I'm accused of being fickle next year will be my 50th year supporting Torquay, I've had a season ticket for over 15years but when adding on my fuel costs - over £1000 for 'home' fixtues - averaging £50 a trip I would rather spend that kind of money watching League 2 than BSP or whatever its re-named.
As I've mentioned twice on other threads I'm correct in thinking there must have been a Board meeting yesterday judging by a change of Chairman.
Now for some initiatives about boosting the gate (and noise) for Saturday.

http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 63696.aspx

Looks like there will be further discounts for S/T holders

MidDevon wrote:My business acrumim my be questioned on here, but I can confirm that VAT on a £20 ticket is in fact £3.33 not £4.00

Ok, now I'm intrigued, why?

Matt.

That is very good news Roar. For a long time I have heard from a many how season tickets holders deprive the club of income, and having a season ticket seem to be in the eyes of many as a bad thing.

I do not get it, it is such a backward way of thinking. Lower league clubs do not have strenght to offer banking services have their hotels and multi million pound commercial set ups like many premier and Championship clubs have.

From a lower league footballing buisness point of view your season ticket sales should be seen as king, how many fans come to plainmoor for all 23 home matchs and pay on the gate, some may do, but I should imagine not many.

I believe our club currently has around 1000 season ticket holders, just imagine what it would do to our average gates and ability to move in the summer transfer market if we doubled that to 2000 season ticket holders, season ticket sales are gaunranteed up front income, and that is excatly why the club should be driving season ticket sales.

And one way to do that is added benenfits and further discounts, so lets see Saturday what this letter says. I am hoping it has a 'small' discount built in should and only should the club be relegated, that would certainly convince me to re-new and hopefully many others aswell.

Matt

Vat is a sales tax added on to anything you buy. So essentially the 20% is added after the price. A £20 match ticket at Torquay is really charging £16.67 plus VAT @ 20%.

20% of £16.67 is £3.33.

In addition, as a VAT registered company Torquay can claim the VAT back on most things that they purchase, from footballs, toilet rolls, printing of the programme etc which offsets much ,but not all, of the loss.

ferrarilover wrote:
Ok, now I'm intrigued, why?

Matt.

If you are adding VAT onto a total then you multiply by 0.2 (or divide by 5) to get the VAT. If you have a total already including VAT (like a match ticket) then you divide by 6 to get the VAT.

The easiest example is £100 goods, £20 VAT and £120 total. Multiply the goods total by 0.2 or Divide the Total by 6 to get the VAT content.

MidDevon wrote:Matt

Vat is a sales tax added on to anything you buy. So essentially the 20% is added after the price. A £20 match ticket at Torquay is really charging £16.67 plus VAT @ 20%.

20% of £16.67 is £3.33.

In addition, as a VAT registered company Torquay can claim the VAT back on most things that they purchase, from footballs, toilet rolls, printing of the programme etc which offsets much ,but not all, of the loss.

Of course, that's perfectly sensible and absolutely correct. I've never considered it before now, but doing it my way (take the total and divide it by 5, or however, to get 20% VAT) is self-evidently wrong. Every day a school day.

Gulli, your thing seems to work too, thanks for that.

How does being VAT registered work then? Surely I pay VAT on my ticket, the club act essentially as an intermediary and pass my blood money tax to the appropriate authorities? Why, if the Club get it back, am I paying it at all?

Matt.

As a business you buy stuff, and sell stuff which has vat on it. The government (steals) claims the balance of the tax owed or refunds depending on whether you are in a positive or negative situation with regards the vat at the end of each financial quarter.

Matt

It get's a bit more complicated. There are 2 types of VAT registered companies

Companies have to register for VAT when their annual turnover exceeds approx £77,000 a year. This means the chap who may be a window cleaner or run a small hairdresser does not generally have to bother. As a business they pay VAT on everything they purchase but cannot claim anything back.

Most smaller companies with a turnover of between £77,000 and £220,000 register under what is called the "Flat rate Scheme". This means they charge VAT on anything they sell (as long as it is vatable) but pay the VATman a % of their turnover which is around the 6.5% to 8.5% of annual turnover depending in various factors. The Government give discounts in year 1 for example to encourage companies to do the right thing and register.

Companies who's annual turnover exceeds around £220,000, such as TUFC and 1000 Flags Limited (just plucking a random company out of thin air here!) have to become a Limited Company. This essentially means they have directors and share ownership and are registered at companies house.

Limited Companies are essentially tax collectors for the Government, charging VAT on everything they sell within the UK and EU. To offset this charge they keep the invoices for everything they purchases and can off-set some of that cost against the VAT they have paid to other companies.

To answer your question in part, if the club buy a football to sell in the club shop for £1.20 from a uk wholesaler, then they can claim 20p back VAT for the purchase.
If they then sell that same ball for £6 in the club shop, then £1 of that is VAT which they pay the Government so essentially the net loss on VAT is 80p.
However the club can also claim back the VAT on the plastic bag the purchase is put in, the staff uniform etc, so some but not all of that tax comes back.

VAT is essentailly a TAX on the last person who buys an item, so it is generally the man in the street who pays the VAT

To complicate matters more, my business does a lot of exports, whilst we are essentially retailers, around 1/3rd of what we sell goes outside the European Union, e.g USA, Canada, Switzerland, South Africa etc and those sales are not subject to VAT. So exporting is good for British business on the whole.

thanks for that mate!

everyday is a school day!

I had to read it twice (well, bits of it), but I understand. What a lovely chap you are, I'd let you marry my sister (if I had one). Is selling flags really that profitable?

Matt.

We do ok!

Remember turnover is vanity, profits are sanity!

P.S I will ask the CEO of 1000 Flags Limited is I can marry your sister, as she happens to be my wife, she will probably say yes

To be honest she is a great wife, but a rubbish boss!

MidDevon wrote:P.S I will ask the CEO of 1000 Flags Limited is I can marry your sister, as she happens to be my wife, she will probably say yes

To be honest she is a great wife, but a rubbish boss!

thats women for you mate.......