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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/mobile-firms-backdating-vat-rise.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Some mobile phone users have been charged the new VAT rate on calls made in December" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/min-mobile-firms-backdating-vat-rise.jpg" alt="Some mobile phone users have been charged the new VAT rate on calls made in December"/></a></p>
<p>Phone users with some of the UK&#8217;s major companies have been charged the higher VAT rate for calls made in December &#8211; but are not entitled to a refund, they have been warned.</p>
<p>Price comparison website uSwitch said customers of companies including Orange, Three, T-Mobile and Virgin Media have been charged the 20% VAT rate on all calls and texts in the latest billing period that were not pre-paid, including those made in December before the increase took effect.</p>
<p>However, bills are proving a lottery for customers, with other companies including BT, O2, Sky, Vodafone and TalkTalk opting to charge the lower 17.5% rate on calls made before VAT increased on January 4.</p>
<p>The higher rate would hit those who exceeded their &#8220;free&#8221; allocation and those who made extra calls over the festive period, uSwitch said.</p>
<p>HM Revenue and Customs rules say companies who provide a continuous supply of service can calculate VAT at the time of billing, rather than when the calls were made, meaning customers will not be entitled to a refund. However, companies can choose to charge 17.5% on the services provided up to January 3 and 20% on the remainder.</p>
<p>All VAT charges must go to the Treasury, meaning companies do not profit from applying the higher rate ahead of January 4.</p>
<p>USwitch said some mobile networks had also taken the opportunity to introduce a series of price changes alongside the VAT increase, ranging from more expensive calls and texts to the removal of free voicemail and increased billing fees.</p>
<p>USwitch spokesman Ernest Doku said: &#8220;The bizarre thing is the phone firms are not going to make any extra money from this situation &#8211; it all goes to the Inland Revenue. This is lazy billing and customers are bearing the brunt of it while the tax man is rubbing his hands with glee.&#8221;</p>
<p>A Virgin Media spokesman said: &#8220;Whilst VAT is outside of Virgin Media&#8217;s control, as a customer-focused home entertainment provider, in order to make these increases as manageable for our customers as possible, we have rounded down the VAT increases to the nearest penny. However whilst most services are billed in advance, for items that are billed in arrears, such as telephone calls, these items are charged at the prevailing VAT rate at the time of invoicing as per HMRC guidelines for continuous services.&#8221;</p>
<p>T-Mobile, Orange and Three all offered to speak to any concerned customers.</p>
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