I don't know for a fact, but I'm going to have a guess that the majority of people who suggest you don't do it, don't ferking know !! Here's a story from the mangler archive:
Back in 2000, I got a small gig to do an ecommerce website for a dude who wanted to sell dildos etc online. Bear in mind, that this wasn't commonplace online back then. Anyways, built the website with cart on sql, ssl offline card clearing etc. The cost was going to be six grand. I paid a grand to an IT bod I knew with a higher boredom threshold than me to add the products (about 900) complete with descriptions, pics etc. The site was tested and ready to go. Problem then arose and the client paid a grand, which I paid to the product monkey, then came up with another grand, which I took and he couldn't come up with the rest. I refused to hand over the website until he paid, which he couldn't. Upshot was, I had a dildo website all ready to go. So, instead of shelving it, I advertised it, bought some stock and got on with running it in conjunction with a normal contract.
The fun part was when I got a VAT inspection about six months later. We were working through stuff (just the usual random quarter out of each of the last four years) when we come to a quarter with dildo purchase invoices in it
Mr VAT says that he can see some entries for invoices from a company called 'SINtillation'. Can I tell him what they sell and can he see an invoice picked at random from the list in the accounts. I explain the story as above, which raises a smile. He then asks if I'm holding any purchased stock and can I prove these purchases, as they are 'out of character' for an IT service company. I produce several large boxes of dildos, vibrating latex c**ts and various other bits and pieces. By this time, Mr VAT doesn't know where to look. I then asked him if that was an acceptable approach to take and he said there was no issue with it, despite the goods being 'out of classification' with my VAT registration information. Job done, no issue, not a problem.
To counter some of the above arguements, I could technically have purchased some of these goods and used them personally and claimed they were for resale. That didn't 'come up' !
If the O/P is buying something that he's using to generate profit for his company, I can't see an issue. The wholly and exclusively arguement might wash for a wide screen TV or an iPad but if he purchases the equipment via his company and generates income for his company, there is no issue.
Back in 2000, I got a small gig to do an ecommerce website for a dude who wanted to sell dildos etc online. Bear in mind, that this wasn't commonplace online back then. Anyways, built the website with cart on sql, ssl offline card clearing etc. The cost was going to be six grand. I paid a grand to an IT bod I knew with a higher boredom threshold than me to add the products (about 900) complete with descriptions, pics etc. The site was tested and ready to go. Problem then arose and the client paid a grand, which I paid to the product monkey, then came up with another grand, which I took and he couldn't come up with the rest. I refused to hand over the website until he paid, which he couldn't. Upshot was, I had a dildo website all ready to go. So, instead of shelving it, I advertised it, bought some stock and got on with running it in conjunction with a normal contract.
The fun part was when I got a VAT inspection about six months later. We were working through stuff (just the usual random quarter out of each of the last four years) when we come to a quarter with dildo purchase invoices in it
Mr VAT says that he can see some entries for invoices from a company called 'SINtillation'. Can I tell him what they sell and can he see an invoice picked at random from the list in the accounts. I explain the story as above, which raises a smile. He then asks if I'm holding any purchased stock and can I prove these purchases, as they are 'out of character' for an IT service company. I produce several large boxes of dildos, vibrating latex c**ts and various other bits and pieces. By this time, Mr VAT doesn't know where to look. I then asked him if that was an acceptable approach to take and he said there was no issue with it, despite the goods being 'out of classification' with my VAT registration information. Job done, no issue, not a problem.
To counter some of the above arguements, I could technically have purchased some of these goods and used them
personally and claimed they were for resale. That didn't 'come up' !If the O/P is buying something that he's using to generate profit for his company, I can't see an issue. The wholly and exclusively arguement might wash for a wide screen TV or an iPad but if he purchases the equipment via his company and generates income for his company, there is no issue.
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