Unless you’ve got a TARDIS, you can’t dep yourself out of VAT
I know. I’ve been quiet.
January happened.
Self Assessment season has a habit of swallowing time, inboxes and any remaining grip on reality, and before you know it, weeks have passed and you haven’t written a blog post at all.
So this is me, re-emerging, or perhaps, regenerating?
Because as I was chatting to some performer friends this week about depping out, I happened to spot that it was Christopher Eccleston’s birthday recently.
And if there’s ever a moment to talk about being in two places at once, Doctor Who feels like the right cultural reference.
The “dep” misunderstanding I keep seeing
If you work in music or theatre, you’ll know exactly what depping out means.
You hold a seat.
You get offered another job.
You’re tired, busy, double-booked, or simply human.
So you send in a dep to cover the work.
Completely normal. Entirely sensible.
Where it starts to go wrong is when people assume this automatically means:
“Well, I didn’t do it, so it’s not my income.”
That’s the bit I keep having to gently unpick.
Because for tax and especially VAT, that’s not how it works.
“But I was doing another job Louise…”
This is the justification I’ve heard a lot recently.
- “I wasn’t there.”
- “I was working somewhere else.”
- “Someone else actually did the performance.”
All true.
All understandable.
All irrelevant for VAT.
The uncomfortable reality is this:
You cannot be in two places at once.
And VAT does not allow you to split yourself in half
You have to register for VAT if your income goes over £90,000 in any 12 month consecutive period
If you are late registering, you may have to pay the VAT bill, especially if the client/customer no longer operates in business.
