I generally invoice about £5,000 per month, some £60,000 per year, so my business is not yet VAT registered. However, from 1 April a new customer will provide an additional £2,000 of sales per month. When exactly will I have to register for VAT?
You currently have a margin of £13,000 between your regular sales and the new VAT registration threshold of £73,000 (from 1 April 2011). Your new income will fill that margin in 7 months. If your regular sales remain constant your turnover for the past 12 months will exceed £73,000 in mid-October 2011. You will need to register for VAT by 30 November 2011. As the VAT registration process can take at least a month, you should send in your application for VAT registration (online or in paper form) as soon as you realize your sales have exceeded £73,000. On that form be careful to state the date from which you become liable to register for VAT, even if that is some weeks in advance.
