My Brother employed six electricians and VAT registered. He had a proper woman doing all the books for many years. The Inspector spent 2 days poking around and telling him it was all wrong. A doorbell was a luxury so 25 percent vat, a night storeage heater was 0 vat, new wiring was 0 vat but rewiring old wiring was 12.5 vat. This applied to labour on each task so we had to time the wiring time of each item to decide which rate applied.
After 2 days, he told the inspector he was shutting down, releasing the employees and just working for himself with no vat registration. He then spent 30 years without any vat inspectors.
Quite funny when at his funeral he had the fools and horses song played. My 3 Nephews who run the business now are all self employed individuals so still no vat registration.