I think you work on quite different stuff from me - so don't quote me (and I hope others can pitch in)... but in general you are right that the way to keep those customers on board is that you charge them a fee that is appropriate once VAT has been included. That does, as you can see, mean that you lose out a little when dealing with those non-VAT-registered customers. The VAT registered ones are really only paying the before-VAT-added price (in effect they get to claim the VAT back) whereas the not-VAT-registered ones have to pay the full thing.

In my case, I have both too - but I tend to get larger contracts with the VAT registered customers anyway - so I don't really lose out.

Don't miss the flat rate scheme that's available for VAT by the way. This makes life much simpler for some people (me included).

On the materials thing - don't forget that you are now paying less for them! I'm not clear that you've quite understood this (no criticism intended - just thought that's worth pointing out as a possibility).

Good luck with this. There's a lot to absorb all at one time in regard to VAT.

Just a couple of ideas for what they are worth (ignore freely!) - but have you considered phoning instead. Or even making a visit perhaps. At the very least it might be good to say in the e-mail "I intend telephoning in the next week" or alternatively telephoning to say "I wonder if you could advise me on who to send an e-mail too." The advantage of the second approach is that you may - if you ask the name of the person you speak to - be able to say "'John Smith' suggested I e-mail you about..."

I wanted to say thanks for the useful advice above - I also found it helpful.

I wonder if anyone can say where they have found the best sources of advice on this employment/self-employment issue. I know about the basics - but as well as being self-employed I also work part time managing a project in a small organisation that intends to work with a group of people in a freelance way. I'm probably needing to go the HMRC for definite advice - but they seem to want only to provide this in a formal way. I'm worried that once they get involved they may make up their mind one way or the other (whether people are employed or not) and that it may be hard to have them change their mind - whereas if we get things set up right in the first place...