Me again! I have another query. If I have invoices from a client that say pay in full but no reciept and I can see the payment has gone in on the bank statement is that enough or do I need to ensure that I have the reciept as well?
By the rules you are meant to have a receipt (which can be paper or stored electronically) showing the VAT number of the seller for every purchase in order to claim back VAT on that purchase. If I ever receive a VAT inspection, I'd certainly want to have those receipts.
However, my impression is that you will get away with the *occasional* missing receipt so long as you have other evidence such as a bank statement, particularly as for card purchases the statement shows the seller by company name. It would also help if there is a pattern of regular purchases from that supplier and the supplier did not sell items likely to tempt people to fraudulently claim a personal purchase is a business purchase.
However, I haven't actually had a VAT inspection, so I'm going only by what I have heard. Some people on this forum take a stricter view from bitter experience and say to their clients that if you have lost receipt then, tough, you've also lost the VAT.
hi
Yes it does matter even if they are not VAT registered, as the 'taxman' can do an inspection, be it for self assessement or Corporation Tax, as the receipt may be used to reduce either of those liabilities, depending on what the expenditure is. I usually advise clients to keep every single receipt as if I can reduce the tax bill even by pennies I would rather they have the benefit rather than the tax mans - that usually gets clients on board, although I also do a spreadsheet of missing receipts which I share with them - its amazing what they can find when they focus their mind.
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
A lot of companies don't issue receipts for invoices paid. If you have the invoice and a matching bank payment that should be enough. In an ideal world you'd want a purchase order matched with an invoice matched with a receipt, but sometimes you need to be a bit pragmatic about things.
Only a very few of the companies that my clients deal with issue receipts for invoices paid, and those that do tend to be invoices that have been paid by credit card. As Kris said "in an ideal world" you would have all the necessary paper trail, but unfortunately this is very far from an ideal world...lol
