Reply to: Keeping Receipts for those Flat rated....

[maxima]

thank you Clare.

[Clare@InTouch]

Absolutely fine to keep scans instead of originals, with a couple of exceptions (interest stmts, dividend vouchers, CIS). From HMRC:

You don't need to keep the vast majority of your records in their original form. If you prefer, you can keep a copy of most of them in an alternative format. For example:
scanned PDF
files saved on a CD-ROM
files saved on an optical imaging system

HM Revenue & Customs: Records for Corporation Tax: what you need to keep

[maxima]

I scan all mine and store them as XPS files on my NAS.
As well as in the emails to my accountants each quarter.

will HMRC accept that? I have probably 10% of real receipts. but I keep all the emails with scanned ones.. And by receipts I mean all the expenses receipts not just fuel (dont have any mileage)...

[northernladuk]

Oddly when I'm offered a receipt I do take it and shove it in my handbag. I then have to clean it out.


Nope it makes you look messy and organised.


Not all my family and friends are permies.

You say potato, I say potatoe but it's meant to be..

[SueEllen]

You are forgetting the two most important reasons for collecting fuel receipts...

1) It makes you look like a proper businessman when you ask for it in a garage. If the attendent offers you one by default he is obviously in awe of you and would be rude to refuse the offer from your underling

Oddly when I'm offered a receipt I do take it and shove it in my handbag. I then have to clean it out.

2) It makes you look rich when you are out as your wallet is bulging in your back pocket which the chicks dig

Nope it makes you look messy and organised.

3) It makes you look very important to your friends and family when you open your wallet and it is full of receipts. It re-enforces the fact you own and run a successful business lest they forget.

Not all my family and friends are permies.

[Scrag Meister]

I've started to use Expensify on my phone and online - take a photo of the receipt and it uploads it for you.

If you pay, it will also OCR it and store the amounts in an expense report for you, or you can put them in manually.

I scan all mine and store them as XPS files on my NAS.
As well as in the emails to my accountants each quarter.

[northernladuk]

You are forgetting the two most important reasons for collecting fuel receipts...

1) It makes you look like a proper businessman when you ask for it in a garage. If the attendent offers you one by default he is obviously in awe of you and would be rude to refuse the offer from your underling

2) It makes you look rich when you are out as your wallet is bulging in your back pocket which the chicks dig

3) It makes you look very important to your friends and family when you open your wallet and it is full of receipts. It re-enforces the fact you own and run a successful business lest they forget.

[Nixon Williams]

You can, actually. roughly 1p of your 45p is VAT and fully claimable if you can be bothered to calculate it out. (personally I don't bother for the number of claimable miles I'm doing). And under FRS you are actually reclaiming VAT on fuel, you just don't itemise it.

Having to be able to prove you put fuel in your car is patently stupid - but nobody ever accused Hector of being over-endowed with and intelligence

If you are on the VAT FRS, you cannot reclaim the VAT on mileage. Remember the only VAT you can reclaim is on capital assets at least £2000.

I agree that the ruling to retain receipts is mad, however this was forced on the UK authorities by an EU ruling.

[psychocandy]

You do not have to keep fuel receipts if you are not reclaiming VAT, probably due to being on the Flat Rate scheme or perhaps not being VAT registered. The mileage log is sufficient for claimg corporation tax relief.

If you are NOT on the Flat Rate VAT scheme, you now have to keep receipts in order to relaim the VAT on the fuel element. This normally works out at about 1.5 -2.0 pence per mile.

Alan

Alan, yes, I'm with NW now and this is how its been explained to me.

[TheFaQQer]

(I did try to explain that I've got a fair load of Halifax shares but they've never told me I have to pop in to the branch now and again to do some filing!).

You probably should - the branch service round here is awful.

[malvolio]

Never understood the need to keep fuel receipts if you're on flat rate VAT. After all, you're not reclaiming any VAT.

You can, actually. roughly 1p of your 45p is VAT and fully claimable if you can be bothered to calculate it out. (personally I don't bother for the number of claimable miles I'm doing). And under FRS you are actually reclaiming VAT on fuel, you just don't itemise it.

Having to be able to prove you put fuel in your car is patently stupid - but nobody ever accused Hector of being over-endowed with and intelligence

[Nixon Williams]

Never understood the need to keep fuel receipts if you're on flat rate VAT. After all, you're not reclaiming any VAT.

You do not have to keep fuel receipts if you are not reclaiming VAT, probably due to being on the Flat Rate scheme or perhaps not being VAT registered. The mileage log is sufficient for claiming corporation tax relief.

If you are NOT on the Flat Rate VAT scheme, you now have to keep receipts in order to relaim the VAT on the fuel element. This normally works out at about 1.5 -2.0 pence per mile.

Alan

[psychocandy]

Never understood the need to keep fuel receipts if you're on flat rate VAT. After all, you're not reclaiming any VAT.

Last accountant (the crap one I got rid of) told me I had to keep petrol receipts to prove I was actually putting petrol in my car and not just claiming mileage and not paying for petrol. Not sure what else they thought would power my car....

But then again, whats stopping me biking it to client all week, claiming mileage, filling car up with petrol at weekend and using it all and then producing receipt? Pointless waste of time.

Crap accountants. When I heard this from them I knew it was time to drop them.....

And the fact they thought that HMRC won the Arctic case and because of this you could only split the shares in the company based on the amount of work each shareholder did. WTF. (I did try to explain that I've got a fair load of Halifax shares but they've never told me I have to pop in to the branch now and again to do some filing!).

[TheFaQQer]

I've started to use Expensify on my phone and online - take a photo of the receipt and it uploads it for you.

If you pay, it will also OCR it and store the amounts in an expense report for you, or you can put them in manually.

[malvolio]

Also, don't foget the looming "Business Records Checks". They could nasty if there are no supporting documents for expenditures...

As others have sadi, they don't have to be filed in any kind of order, as long as you have them.