The employer of one of our authors sent in a fee note for his latest article recently.

It's in the usual 'request for payment/this is not a VAT invoice' format, which we as tax advisers often recommend to our clients as a way of dealing with cash flow and bad debt problems.

Trouble is, our accounts department have sent it back marked 'cannot pay, not a valid VAT invoice'.

His accounts department says 'we only issue VAT invoices on receipt of payment'.

I'm changing my name to John Yossarian ...

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