GIANT and a Change of Expense Procedures

[Billy Pilgrim]

Giant has encouraged there client to claim full expenses on there dispensation and never told me would have to have receipts to back them up. We have had it good for a long time and I suspect because of there size they consider themselves safe from investigation.

The new rules are designed to divide and conquer, breaking up the large groups which are to complexed to investigate. You either stay with the Giant etc and pay more taxs or go it alone and he an easier target for IR to investigate.

I switched from a Ltd to giant last year for the allowances, easy life and have made some extra money. The holidays over it look like back to Ltd with the 2 hours a week doing book and invoices etc. Unless anyone can come up with a better idea?????

2hrs per week??

Invoices once per month - 5/10 mins to do
Spreadsheet of Incomings / Outgoings - once per month - taken straight from my Bank statement. 5/10 mins
Personal expenses and milage spreadsheet - 5 mins per week
Glue / sellotape / staple all receipts onto A4 and stick in file - 5/10 mins at end of each week
60 odd quid for accountant to sort the rest

[Ardesco]

In regard to expenses the new rules are no different to the old rules. The only difference is that the umbrellla companies are being forced to follow the old rules in a stricter way.

If you have ever been claiming expenses that you did not incur you have been commiting fraud and if IR do an investigation on you, you are liable for a spell inside.

[pickle]

[QUOTE=mictech]The holidays over it look like back to Ltd with the 2 hours a week doing book and invoices etc. QUOTE]

Feck me, a whole working day per month to run a one man limited!?

Do you have learning difficulties?

[Cowboy Bob]

Giant has encouraged there client to claim full expenses on there dispensation and never told me would have to have receipts to back them up. We have had it good for a long time and I suspect because of there size they consider themselves safe from investigation.

Are you safe from investigation though? They are after all YOUR expenses and you need to back them up with receipts if you ever have your personal tax invetigated. It has happened. There are a few people on here who have been investigated and are VERY glad they had receipts to back up their claims.

Claiming expenses that you haven't incurred is fraud - a criminal offence - which depending on how much you have claimed and for how long could end up with you in prison.

[Newby]

Sorry to disagree with some of you but it isn't anything to do with the new regulations, it will be HMRC who will have given them a damn good seeing too and taken away their dispensation.

Some companies have included a profit element in their dispensations which is why the revenue will have stopped the priviledge. You will have seen those companies who advertise "£24 a day for lunch" etc etc.
Hence if you continue to work with Giant you now have to send in petrol receipts and subsistence receipts. (its a shame that their portal doesnt look so handy now!!!)

My advice would be stop being lazy, go Limited, be in business on your own account and make more money!!

[Billy Pilgrim]

Just out of interest...where / how does everyone keep their expenses???

At present I have them all attached to A4 bit of paper and in a file in my little office.

I do not (as yet) have them all scanned in as electronic copies incase I manage to lose my A4 file..

Do people also keep electronic copies??

[Cowboy Bob]

At present I have them all attached to A4 bit of paper and in a file in my little office.

Exactly the same here. In a box file, stapled to A4 paper, with an explanation of the expense written out on the paper if it requires it (ie. I purchased a wireless bridge to connect a wired device to my wireless network and on the receipt it says "Game Adapter" - which probably wouldn't look too good without an explanation).

[Maxamus]

i keep the originals all in a folder in my office (home). I keep copies of all of them in my draw at work.

1. I keep an "expenses spreadsheet" to log all monthly expenses, when they were incurred, reason they were incurred, reference and cost. I update this every day if i need to. I normally reference expenses by giving them a number (0000x) and writing that number on the back of the reciept.

2. This then tallys up with the monthly expenses i withdraw from the business account. In the "Outgoings from Business Bank Account" spreadsheet i log the money taken out for expenses and reference that back to the expenses spreadsheet.

3. So the expenses spreadsheet, outgoing business bank account spreadsheet and business bank account bank statement all tally up as far as expenses are concerned.

Example:

Expenses Spreadsheet
£510 total expenses incurred between 01/01/2007 - 31/01/2007
(all individual items listed and referenced as follows: Date incurred / Type of expense / Reason incurred / Ref / Cost)

Outgoings From Business Account Spreadsheet
£510 taken out, Reason: Expenses paid for period 01/01/2007 - 31/01/2007
Date Taken out from account: 01/02/2007

Business Bank Account Statement:
On the statement it will show that £510 was taken out on the 01/02/2007 which tallys up with the above.

[rawly]

This was covered in a thread from early December when Giant first announced this. Most of your points are correct except for TWO very important one's:

1) Giant did not do this due to anything HMRC said to them. Giant introduced this on advise from an independent group of consultants who advised it was best practice. I know this because I verified it from my Giant CSM.

2) Even though I accept most of the things being said about Expenses, there is one area that is not the case to have reciepts. This is Business Mileage. The official IR web site states you only need to have kept a log book. Receipts are not required. Giant asked for £10 of receipts per 100 miles. They imposed this on themselves - as on this one point I would happily exit Giant and go elsewhere anyway - which I was planning on doing before April anyhow.

In some ways Giant have shot themselves in the foot and seem happy to lose income from us when they piss us off unncecessarily.

[Maxamus]

2) Even though I accept most of the things being said about Expenses, there is one area that is not the case to have reciepts. This is Business Mileage. The official IR web site states you only need to have kept a log book. Receipts are not required.

This is true. You only need a LOG of business mileage and not reciepts. Thats what my accountant said anyway!