Buying stuff on eBay for company use

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Well, there is - there is the receipt of me purchasing it personally, and the accompanying expenses entry in my company accounts.

What I mean is evidence of it being on the company's behalf, not that you paid for it.

In other words, there's a difference between the company's business expenses, and your business expenses.

Unfortunately, HMRC don't go into a great detail on this. They mention it here:
Employment income: expenses payments and reimbursements

Businesses are often run in such a way that employees make payments on their employer's behalf. For example an employee may buy stamps for the employer and be paid from petty cash. This transaction is outside the scope of Section 62 and Section 72: the employee has received no money of his own on which we could make such a charge.

It's a pretty trivial example though and one clearly wouldn't expect anything more than a simple receipt in this case.

Maybe an accountant would like to chip in on this one?

[VectraMan]

In short, you're right, people probably worry too much about things like this but the more expensive it is, or the more likely it is that it could be construed as there being a personal benefit, or if it's a capital purchase, the more important it is to have proof it's in the company name.

I could easily buy a TV on the company credit card, with the company name on the invoice and put it in my living room. I don't see how the money gets from A to B or if the invoice names the company or the director of the company makes the slightest difference to that question.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

I could easily buy a TV on the company credit card, with the company name on the invoice and put it in my living room. I don't see how the money gets from A to B or if the invoice names the company or the director of the company makes the slightest difference to that question.

Different thing entirely though isn't it?