Almost every day, I get a phone call from someone who wants to buy a VAT registered shelf company. It’s usually because they want to buy a going concern business  (most commonly a commercial property) at zero rate from a VAT registered company.

As I explained in my February article a shelf company cannot, by definition, be VAT registered, because a shelf company is one that has never traded.

Taking any route to buy such a company is therefore very risky.

There is, however, a solution:

• Register a new company.
• Sign the Offer to Purchase (OTP) in that company’s name.
• Register the company for VAT based upon the OTP.

It works perfectly if you know what you’re doing and we do.

So, I decided to offer a discounted package that includes

• Register a new company
• Write the SARS compliant OTP
• Register the Newco for VAT