Facts - VAT reduced rate for residential conversions and renovations

VAT: reduced rate for residential conversions and renovations

Who is likely to be affected?
1. Builders, property developers and owners of certain houses and residential homes and institutions carrying out conversions to certain buildings or carrying out renovation or alteration work on empty residential buildings.

General description of the measure

5% saving on your VAT bill

2. The reduced VAT rates for residential conversions and renovations introduced in Budget 2001 were targeted at services where a price cut would have the most effect on the regeneration and renewal of the UK’s housing stock. The Government has carefully considered representations made since the 2001 Budget, particularly by those representing charities, and has been convinced of the merits of making further targeted changes.

3. The scope of the reduced 5% VAT rate will be extended to the costs of:

* Converting a non-residential property into a care home (or other qualifying building used solely for a ‘relevant residential’ purpose);
* Converting a non-residential property into a multiple occupancy dwelling, such as bed-sit accommodation;
* Converting a building used for a ‘relevant residential’ purpose into a multiple occupancy dwelling;
* Renovating or altering a care home (or other qualifying building used solely for a ‘relevant residential’ purpose) that has not been lived in for 3 years or more;
* Renovating or altering a multiple occupancy dwelling that has not been lived in for 3 years or more; and
* Constructing, renovating or converting a building into a garage as part of the renovation of a property that qualifies for the reduced rate.

Operative date
4. The measure will come into effect on 1 June 2002.

Current law and proposed revisions
5. Conversions of non-residential buildings to dwellings or buildings used for a relevant residential purpose are already zero-rated under item 3 of Group 5 of Schedule 8 to the Value Added Tax Act 1994 when the recipient of the supply is a registered housing association or social landlord. Group 6 of Schedule 7A provides for a reduced rate for some other conversions. Group 7 of that Schedule provides for a reduced rate for certain renovations and alterations. These two Groups of Schedule 7A will be amended to reflect these changes.

Further advice
6. Contact the National Advice Service on 0845 010 9000.

source: HM Revenues & Customs

Facts

Gadgets - Sonos wireless sound throughout your home

Sonos is the first wireless, multi-room digital music system that lets you play digital music all over your house—and control it all from the palm of your hand. With a wireless Sonos® Controller in hand, you’ll have plug-and-play access to millions of songs—from music services, Internet radio, your personal digital music collection, or all of the above.

And, with Sonos® ZonePlayers in the rooms of your choice, you can play the same song in different rooms, or different songs in different rooms. To start listening, just grab the full-color Controller and simply pick a room, pick a song and hit play.

With a Sonos Digital Music System you can:

• Wirelessly stream digital music and Internet radio, all over your house—in up to 32 rooms.
• Control all your music in all your rooms from the palm of your hand with a 3.5″ full-color LCD screen and scroll wheel.
• Plug-and-play millions of songs from select music services—no ripping, downloading or PC required.
• Liberate the digital music that’s stored on your PC, Mac or Network Attached Storage box.
• Play the same song in different rooms or different songs in different rooms. Simultaneously.

For more information go to www.sonos.com

 

Gadgets

Gadgets - waterproof TV

The likelihood that I would be able to have this installed in my shower room is slim to none. I would firstly use up all the hot water so that my wife would have to suffer the ‘freshness’ of a cold shower and secondly, my monitor addition would get right out of hand. But this gadget is too cool to leave off the site.

When installed, the 5″ TV is watertight and suitable for use in a bathroom, shower, kitchen, hot tub area, etc. It is designed to fit into a wall space approximately the size of a tile. The unit then sits flush against the tiles, all leads being fed into the cavity wall space behind.

It’ll set you back £200

More information can be found at www.techvision.co.uk

Bathroom Gadgets

News - Home/garden office increases house value

Research carried out by Enterprise Nation and Homefinder UK has confirmed that having a home office or garden office can increase the value of your property by at least £25,000.

It pays to work from home
A comparison of house prices across the UK has confirmed that it really does pay to work from home with increases in property values ranging from the smallest differential of £2,450 through to a whopping £80,000. This is an £80,000 difference in the amount being offered for two similar houses located in the same area yet one with a home office and the other, woefully without.

Freya Bletsoe, Director at Homefinder UK Ltd and co-author of the research said “These results show that not only can you save on costs through working from home, you can also earn a significant sum, just through the rise in property value. If you had not thought about homeworking before, then think again!

div style=”float:left; margin: 0 0 10px 10px;”>

And in the garden
The same value-added applies to having a garden office. Nick Hopewell-Smith, Chairman of Henley Garden Buildings Ltd  confirms that the residual value of the company’s buildings can add anything from 3-5% to the value of a conventional property. In some cases estate agents have attributed a value increase more than twice the full retail price of the Henley building concerned.

With the evidence clearly pointing to the economic benefits of working from home, what are you waiting for?!

Source: Enterprise Nation

News

Gadgets - Boiling water from the tap?

Is this the end on the kettle? Quooker have come up with an alternative in the form of a tap that delivers constant boiling water. Cold water flows to the tank, then heated to 110C. It’s purified and stays sterile. Then the water cools off to 100c as it flows out, and starts to boil. Calcium conversion takes place (no more tea scum). 

It costs a whooping £690 and costs 2p a day to run. But this isn’t just for tea, this speeds up cooking as a whole.

More information can be found at www.quooker.co.uk

Gadgets Kitchen

Next Page »