Readers' forum : Gecko’d

I have been approached to act for a woman who has built up a successful small business selling food for geckos – the reptiles rather than the fictional Wall Street trader. Her business continues to expand and turnover is now fast approaching the VAT registration threshold. Her supplies are to private individuals and I think that there would be a considerable fall in sales if she increased her prices immediately by 20% to pass on the VAT charge. In the short term I think she would have to bear most of the cost accept a reduced profit and try to increase prices gradually over a year or two. I appreciate that registration will mean that she can recover input tax but my initial calculations are that this will not make a huge difference.

My question is whether she should charge VAT at all on these food sales....