Justine Wooff

Hello, I have recently joined (Oct 23) a non-VAT registered CIC. Last week I received a chaser VAT only invoice from a company we placed a job advertisement with in May 2023. Payment was made online using a credit card and I have a receipt dated 11th May 2023. (I don't believe an invoice was issued) On the 18th September 2023 the company contacted my predecessor requesting payment of a VAT only invoice stating: "I am contacting you due to [company name] reaching there VAT freehold earlier in the year and we are having to claim the VAT on the service that we supplied you back in Feb 2023" They have also attached their VAT Registration approval letter from HMRC which is dated 17th July 2023 and confirms that they have been registered with effect from 1st February 2023. I have looked through previous topic threads on this forum for advice and have found some conflicting response so I am hoping you can give me some clear advice. Surely the company should have been charging VAT whilst awaiting VAT registration and we are under no obligation to pay this backdated VAT invoice? As a non-Vat registered community interest company we a) cannot recover this as input VAT and b) can't really afford to pay an additional £200 on a service we contracted and received over 10 months ago! A reply to a post from 11 months ago by HMRC Admin 10 states "there would be no legal requirement to pay the VAT on these invoices as VAT should have been charged at the time of supply" Please can confirm that this applies in my scenario too before I respond to the supplier. Many thanks