Work out what a commission leaves you once VAT and referral costs are out of it.
Paid to a portal, a lead source or another agent.
Treated here as recharges, under HMRC's disbursement conditions.
Illustrative figures on 2026/27 rates and simplified assumptions. This is general information, not advice. Ask us to work it out on your agency's figures, free.
Commission is standard-rated. Schedule 9 Group 1 exempts the grant of an interest in land, and an agent grants none: it supplies services, normally to the seller, with a tax point when the work is complete. The finance exemption in Group 5 covers financial transactions, and a land sale is not one.
On a fee quoted including VAT, one sixth of it goes to HMRC.
A payment is a disbursement only if it meets all eight of HMRC’s conditions at VTAXPER39000, including that the client, and not the agent, used the service. Revenue and Customs Brief 6 of 2020, after the Brabners case, adds that a cost you use in making your own supply is part of that supply.
Rightmove supplies the service to you, and you use a referencing report to form your own recommendation, so we treat both as recharges. HMRC has not ruled on either for estate agents. An EPC can be a disbursement when the assessor contracts with the seller and you pay as authorised agent.
Know the net figure per instruction. A point off the fee is a much larger share of what you keep, more so once a referral fee is in the deal.
Buzz Coaching is a trading style of Buzz Accounting Ltd (company 15182358).
Takes enquiries, the share that become clients, average sale, how often they buy and margin, and shows what a small change to each does to net profit.
Open the toolWorks out what a 10% price change does to profit and how far client numbers could fall at the higher price before profit drops.
Read moreCovers working out margin per client, deciding what to stop, pricing the next client and holding the line on scope.
Read moreA free review gets you the accurate figure for your agency.