can you apply vat on carriage charges on invoices?

Answer 1

Generally the carriage is separated out at the bottom of the invoice and VAT would be applicable if the sender is VAT registered. Postage via the Post Office is not.
Contrary to popular belief, items on an invoice must have VAT charged on them individually... so for instance a book (such as a technical book) would not have VAT on it, but a diary would. So, if you purchased a reference book and a diary, and had them delivered by a carrier, the diary and the carriage would be subject to VAT, but the reference book would not.
But, if they were delivered by the Post Office with Stamps you would not necessarily be charged VAT.
Hence why you cannot automatically divide the invoice total by 1.175 to calculate the VAT. Confusing stuff, this VAT!