Keeping self employed receipts.
When we keep the receipts for mileage and stock etc do I need to highlight the item and put a note of what it was purchased for etc.?
we had to buy cash boxes and a safe etc so do I staple the receipt from tesco to a sheet of paper stating ...
purchase of cash boxes and safe for business use.
cost
date
im not sure how to store them or just chuck them all in a tin and let the tax office deal with it?
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Id keep them organised as you've said as it'll be easier to find if you need them, if your self employed and not limited when you do your tax return you can make a claim and they may ask you to provide proof etc.
This isn't gospel I'm self employed and just provided an accountant with my invoices and travels costs etc and got my rebate.
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Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Self employed I just keep receipts for expenses and invoices for income, give it all to my accountant and he deals with it. When limited/VAT registered I think you have to be more precise and you charge per mile rather than a tank of fuel as with expenses.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
evilsatan
Self employed I just keep receipts for expenses and invoices for income, give it all to my accountant and he deals with it. When limited/VAT registered I think you have to be more precise and you charge per mile rather than a tank of fuel as with expenses.
I am a limited co and just keep expenses and record mileage as expenses. I keep receipts for expenses for my accountant but just seperate them into envelopes for each month. Am on flat rate VAT as well. To be fair that is all I do as that is what an accountant is for, mine does everything.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
I am an accountant so much prefer people to list properly - you may have a big envelope of just "expenses" that someone then has to go through and allocate between stationery, telephone, repairs etc etc. Takes more time and so costs you more money.
Just a simple little spreadsheet will do, list them all on there and drop in to expense types. Also number them 1-?? and show that on the sheet so if there are any queries it's easy to find the backing receipt.
Mileage/actual costs depends on circumstances, when self employed there can be a massive tax advantage one way or the other but if limited then normally better off to just do a mileage claim to avoid the benefit in kind charges.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
I pay a fixed fee and only expenses that are receipted are food and coffee.
They also have a portal where I put stuff in like 6 quid for Lunch, 15 miles mileage etc.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BertRoot
I pay a fixed fee and only expenses that are receipted are food and coffee.
They also have a portal where I put stuff in like 6 quid for Lunch, 15 miles mileage etc.
Is this with a local firm to you?
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Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Would be interested to hear about who you use if it's a national firm Bert, and how much it costs. Looking to go limited and register for VAT this year, I have spoken to a local accountant but it seems the popular way of doing things (with my younger professional friends at least) is to use one of the national firms as they have these portals etc making it streamlined.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
They are a national firm but are based locally to me. I was recommended then by colleagues. To be clear I am a contract IT architect with a limited company that was stood up by these lot. They have access to my company bank account and manage all things I need them to, VAT , Corp tax and have offered some good advice where things have been done wrong by my pimp and got me 7 grand in VAT that I didn't know I was due. They aren't cheap but offer a few different tiers of service. I go for the top one which IIRC is around 115 a month and they also manage my insurances and stuff for a little more to cover the policy costs. Online they provide me with an online time sheet and a reasonably comprehensive expenses portal. They also send me a monthly advice sheet that details corp tax liability, VAT liability and what to take as salary and expenses and also what I can take as dividends to ensure I have enough in the company accounts to cover tax and fees etc. anyone wants any info on them shout as I get a bung for referrals.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Got that but then had to clear around 500 up to be able to respond. In the old days staff had unlimited space. Guessing an upgrade broke that.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Self employed lot easier with spreadsheet list and receipts logged monthly keep in order with reference.
LTD & VAT reg more specific (right pain everything has to be accounted for etc ) I input it all in sage and forward to accountant
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Wow stuck already.
installed QB today input all wife's info on instal then started the program.
Seems like I need to watch some videos before I start lol.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Probably safest lol - very easy to think it's all right and be a total waste of time which the accountant ends up redoing from scratch.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Been using freeagent and it makes things so easy. Check it out. There are other free alternatives out there for web based accounting
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Guy I work with likes it but has some shortcomings with his agent apparently.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
I gave up with keeping receipts when I changed from IT to Photography. Doing the IT job I was driving all over, parking a lot fuel, lunch buying stuff for jobs etc so generated a lot of receipts and could only pay cash for most things. Now cards can be used to pay for everything and to be honest I don't really buy that much and most that is bought is done online.
Now I buy everything on the card, and when I do my tax return stuff my memory kicks in and I go through my bank statement adding everything in there produce a spread sheet for the accountant to go through and he sorts it all out in a few hours. ok s I probably miss a few things out but the time saved not filing receipts and trying to read the heat printed receipts that fade over time.
Time saved is huge no longer 2 days sorting tiny pieces of paper out working out what they were for (I would leave everything till a month before it needed doing so all done at once) I now do the whole year this way in a few hours. email it to the accountant head up to him a few days later, read it and sign the form for sending in. makes my accountant bill cheaper too.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
LittleJohn If you keep a separate bank account for all business transactions and download a csv (or bank feed) then you can automate that even more - just a case of splitting out the expense types.
You should still be keeping all of the receipts to back it up though in case of HMRC enquiry.
Re: Keeping self employed receipts.
Yeah I could do that but I have use my current account, there are not that many purchases anyway so it is pretty easy to do. and most purchases are online or automated now anyway