Sorry to come in late into this conversation.My turnover is towards £150k, but most of that is the fees for the freelancers. If I could de-register, my prices would be more competitive with no loss of profit.I will watch with interest as I use a couple of freelance designers. I'm wondering why you think it would be good to be able to de-register though as surely your bottom line could be higher if you grow and get your turnover up towards £150K?
I think Stringy is right in treating freelance musicians as disbursement. He/she is acting as the booking agent. If you're satisfy all of HMRC's 8 requirements, then you're good to go. The VAT tribunal favours the tax payer with regards to this. There was a case where the taxpayer (Ellon Car Clinic) didn't even itemise his invoices and HMRC still lost.
What is most unfortunate is that there are accountants that will advise otherwise which costs a business like Stringy's £15k+ per year. It's okay if the net profit for this sort of business was £50k+. Unfortunately, we're looking at £15-20k net profit for turnovers of £130k. Equal to the actual VAT bill.
