fuel VAT receipts

milliemonster

I have a company car, I have a company credit card to pay for fuel and hand in the receipts to my employer each month and pay for my own private mileage separately.

Now, normally I always obtain a VAT receipt for my fuel as I appreciate this is required but on occasion have forgotten to ask for one.

My employer has now told me along with my colleagues that going forward VAT receipts for ALL company expenses must be obtained and submitted, if they are not then we will individually be charged the VAT and have to pay this to our employer.

Can anyone confirm if my employer is correct in this?

Pennywise

Your employer can't reclaim the VAT charged without a valid VAT receipt, so the relatively simple task of the employee providing a proper receipt seems reasonable to me.

JasonLVC

As Pennywise has stated, the business cannot reclaim any VAT on fuel expenditure unless it has a VAT receipt.

Visa receipts will not do, it has to be a VAT receipt.

That your employer is holding YOU responsible for them not being able to recover VAT is a contractual matter between you and the employer. There is no law governing VAT that states YOU are responsible here, more a case of the employer getting annoyed he cannot reclaim VAT becuase his staff cannot get receipts so is usig this threat to jolly you along.

Whether in employment law an employer can deduct expenses from your salary without justification is another thing, you may want to talk to a CAB or employment solicitor about that, but the employer could just be talking big to get some order out of staff (a bit like withdrawing the free teabags becuase staff keep leaving dirty mugs on the side, etc).

How do you pay for your private fuel? (ie, you fill up for £50 and use company credit card, some of that fuel is 'business' some of that fuel is 'private'). So do you use mileage sheets or similar?.