Oh well, then £15 seems very reasonable. If it was questioned, I am sure you could have that one agreed with. I was part of an investigation a few years back, and that tax inspector was ok with my summations in the absence of every invoice. Just maybe list out the dates of the invoices for that warehouse, so you can prove you checked it properly.
Oooft, its been a while since I did a job with this type of commission. She should get a statement from the company that will detail any VAT. I wouldn't want to hazard a guess at that.
-- Edited by FoxAccountancyServices on Thursday 13th of June 2013 02:24:25 PM
I've taken on a new client and as I find out more and more it is going to be quite a task sorting everything out - but it is actually just the simpler things I am after.
The client was in my class at school for several years (although that is going back over 30 years).
The shop is just down the road from where I live so is very handy.
Anyways - the problems. She has a pile of VAT Assessments going back to May 2010 and I said the actual VAT returns would need done for all those periods. She then said it was probably even further back than that. She has one employee (above LEL but below Secondary Threshold.....and just to complicate matters will be going on maternity leave). So she will have a P35 to do before next Wednesday (she will already be fined £100 and another £100 awaits) as well as the wages through RTI since start of this year. I then asked about the year of her last self-assessment tax return and she says there has been none.
The actual queries :
Mobile phone top ups / Health Lottery - these are purchased through the shop. How are these normally dealt with? (I know I should be asking her and not on the forum, I just have this in-built reluctance to ask a client in case it appears I haven't a clue what I am doing with everything because I ask about one thing). It shows through her till as £xx.xx each day then there will be £xxx.xx comes out her bank account. Then there is a small amount paid back into her account. I assume this is just a commission. So is there VAT on this commission or is the VAT dealt with by the companies she is taking the top ups for? Which nominal codes should I be thinking of?
Vehicle costs - she doesn't have her own vehicle now and her father or someone else will give her a lift to the cash and carry about 35 miles away. She will then give whoever gives her the lift £15 for diesel. Is she allowed to claim VAT back as she has some diesel receipts - obviously not on the full amount but on the fuel element as the miles should be easy enough to calculate? Which brings me to the next question - is she allowed to claim the 45p/25p per mile? If not - what is the best way for her to deal with this in future?
Accounts Office Reference/PAYE Reference (required for payroll submissions) - I can find the PAYE reference easy enough. The Accounts Office Reference I told her would be on the payslip booklet but she says she doesn't have one. Where else can I find this. I also need it to get Agent authorisation.
I hope someone can help with some of these smaller queries - before I get into the major stuff later.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
Mobile phone top ups / Health Lottery - these are purchased through the shop. How are these normally dealt with? (I know I should be asking her and not on the forum, I just have this in-built reluctance to ask a client in case it appears I haven't a clue what I am doing with everything because I ask about one thing). It shows through her till as £xx.xx each day then there will be £xxx.xx comes out her bank account. Then there is a small amount paid back into her account. I assume this is just a commission. So is there VAT on this commission or is the VAT dealt with by the companies she is taking the top ups for? Which nominal codes should I be thinking of?
I usually post a cash receipt and bank payment to a balance sheet code (create one for each, a creditor code will do) for the non commission element. I post the commission bank receipt direct to a sales code. You should be able to balance the creditor code to be, say, one days income that has not yet been taken out of the bank.
Vehicle costs - she doesn't have her own vehicle now and her father or someone else will give her a lift to the cash and carry about 35 miles away. She will then give whoever gives her the lift £15 for diesel. Is she allowed to claim VAT back as she has some diesel receipts - obviously not on the full amount but on the fuel element as the miles should be easy enough to calculate? Which brings me to the next question - is she allowed to claim the 45p/25p per mile? If not - what is the best way for her to deal with this in future?
If you claim fuel VAT, you would need to apply a fuel scale charge, and it probably wouldn't be worth it, and I don't think the claim would legitimate (because you arent being charged VAT by the person who paid for the fuel). 45p x 35 is £15.75 so the fuel she is repaying seems a fair charge. If you are missing fuel invoices, get a rough guide of how often she goes to the warehouse, by counting the warehouse invoices, and work it out that way. Then, get her to keep fuel receipts from now on. I would rather claim mileage, but there's that daft law about sole traders and turnover over £79k, but I think you could back up the validity of the £15 per trip if it was questioned.
Accounts Office Reference/PAYE Reference (required for payroll submissions) - I can find the PAYE reference easy enough. The Accounts Office Reference I told her would be on the payslip booklet but she says she doesn't have one. Where else can I find this. I also need it to get Agent authorisation.
I am sure someone will be along to help with this one. No doubt she can ring HMRC for it, to get you going.
I don't know why I forgot about the mileage amount not being allowable because it was over the VAT threshold. Up very late sorting things out I suppose.
When I said it was 35 miles to the supermarket - it is also 35 miles back. I know when I'm calculating how much my own car journey costs (for my own general info and nothing else) I work it out at 20p per mile. I'm just figuring out how much the petrol will cost approximately. So the 70 miles there and back would cost approximately £14 in my car.
So there is no VAT to complicate matters on the commission?
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
I said at the top of the page (or maybe bottom of page - depending on how you view the forum) that she was in my class at school.
Well, I've just taken a photo of her passport for MLR purposes and find out she was born the day before me. It gets stranger - we were born in the same place. I didn't notice at the time - only noticed it when I was removing the photo from my phone onto computer.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
