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The difficulty I have is I haven't bought anything from them yet so no invoice. It's trying to check up without alerting them because it's a one man business as far as I can see, running from a house...so if I ask for their VAT number I don't want them to be "funny" over it especially as it's a repair job I want done. I thought because one can obtain the business number which I did online, I could find the VAT number as well.
The website he has was last updated in 2011 and he is still showing VAT at 17.5% which is was then of course. In an estimate email he sent he was of course quoting VAT at 20%....but I just want to check that he is registered for paying it...seems more difficult than I thought it would be.