Threshold
Is it worth crossing the VAT line? Wedding photographers dread the £90,000 threshold, and for good reason. Threshold shows your real post-VAT income if you crossed it, and exactly how much more you'd need to bill to come out ahead.
The £90,000 question
Bill £100,000 and you could be left with less than at £89,000.
Threshold shows you the gap, and the number that closes it.
Free, no account, and your numbers never leave your device.
What it does
Turn the VAT dread into a decision.
The cliff edge, made plain
Crossing £90,000 doesn't tax just the bit over the line — you owe VAT on all your sales. Threshold shows exactly what that does to your income, in pounds.
Built for booked-ahead work
Weddings are priced years in advance, so you usually can't add VAT on top. The tool assumes you absorb it on your existing prices, which is the honest, worst-case picture.
Your break-even number
The one figure that matters: the turnover you'd need to bill to be no worse off than sitting just under the threshold. Cross below it and you lose money.
Expenses count in your favour
Buying three new cameras and paying VAT-registered second shooters? That reclaimable VAT lowers your break-even. Pop in a rough yearly guess and watch it move.
How it works
Two numbers in, one clear answer.
No spreadsheets, no jargon. Put in what you'd bill and a rough guess at your expenses, and it does the rest.
- 1
Enter your expected turnover
What you think you'll bill this year. Drag the slider to play with figures like £100,000 or £120,000.
- 2
Add a rough expenses guess
A vague yearly figure for things that carry VAT — gear, software, hosting, VAT-registered second shooters. What you actually pay, VAT included.
- 3
Read the verdict
Under the line, in the dead zone, or worth crossing — with your real post-VAT income and how it compares to staying under £90,000.
- 4
Aim for the break-even
See the turnover you'd need to reach before crossing actually pays, so you don't grow into the loss-making gap by accident.
A guide, not gospel.
Threshold gives you a rough, honest feel for the VAT cliff edge — not an exact bill. It isolates the VAT effect alone (no income tax or National Insurance), assumes the standard 20% scheme with your prices absorbed, and rounds as it goes.
Real VAT depends on your precise turnover, dates, expenses and circumstances, and the rules change. Use this to walk into a conversation with your accountant already knowing the right questions — never as a substitute for their advice.
Behind the build
A few things I thought about.
- It isolates the VAT effect on purpose. No income tax, no National Insurance — just the money the VAT decision itself moves, so the choice is clear instead of buried.
- It assumes you absorb the VAT. Because couples book and agree prices years ahead, you generally can't add 20% to a wedding that's already in the diary. That's the scenario photographers actually fear, so it's the one the tool models.
- The flat rate scheme is left out, deliberately. Whether you're eligible, and whether it beats the standard scheme, is fiddly enough to need an accountant. Decide if crossing works on standard terms first — then ask whether flat rate could sweeten it.
- The numbers are rounded and simplified. Real VAT depends on your exact dates, figures and circumstances. This is a back-of-envelope guide to have a smarter conversation with your accountant, never a replacement for one.
Does this match your own VAT worry?
Tell me where the numbers feel off, what would make it more useful, and whether you'd want the flat rate scheme modelled too. It shapes what I build next.