VAT vindication

I was interested to read today that Mr Darling (of the fearsome eyebrows) may be planning a change to the VAT rate, perhaps a VAT vacation. But the story piqued my interest not because of the impact on my pocket, no matter how substantial. No, I'm afraid my thoughts turned immediately to bill design, which probably says something deeply alarming about my psyche. The truth is that after too many years in this job I fear I've become a secret VAT nerd.

But now, finally, my vindication looms. Many times, we've advised people redesigning their bills to program their VAT rate as variable data that they can change easily, rather than hard-coding it. So for instance we advise them to program a line that says 'VAT at [insert VAT rate]%' rather than 'VAT at 17.5%'. And we've also insisted many times on working through and agreeing a bill presentation that shows multiple VAT rates. It seems simple, but for those clients who've never seen a VAT rate change, or who work in industries like telecoms that don't often use multiple VAT rates, getting this agreed is sometimes a bit of a battle. After all, I barely remember the last VAT rate change myself. But if this VAT holiday goes through, a lot of bills are going to need to show the new rate - and more importantly, they are going to need to show some charges at the old rate, and some at the new rate. So that multiple VAT rate presentation that we insisted on, and which is lurking dustily at the back of the bill design cupboard, will emerge all shiny and sensible to save the day. And the twenty minutes in a bill workshop when a client stared at us in bafflement as we explained that one day, some day, the VAT rate might change will finally be worth it.

So today, for a change, I actually feel ok about being a VAT nerd. I just hope that there aren't any developers out there wishing they'd programmed things differently...