Can I trace a cheque payee

srgo

I paid a cheque to someone 4 years ago, is it possible to still trace the payee. My business paid out this cheque for 8k and unless i can varify the payee I will pay tax on this amount. If anyone can help I would be grateful as this is causing me a great deal of stress.

whitewing

Your bank should be able to provide you with a copy of the cheque for an admin charge (£25-£30 maybe)

srgo

Thanks for that whitewing, will they still be able to show the account that it went into. The business that I paid is no longer in existence which is what is giving me the grief.

jonesMUFCforever

No all they will do is give you a copy of the cheque.
If that is not good enough and your records do not give you the information you want then sign the cheque to the taxman now.

agrinnall

There must be a lot you're not telling us here, why on earth would HMRC think you would know what account a cheque that you have written to a business was paid into? I've written probably thousands of cheques over the last 35 years and I'd only know what account they had gone to in a handful of cases. Once you've handed over a cheque to the payee it's up to them what they do with it. Are you sure that simply providing proof that the cheque was written and banked isn't enough for them?

whitewing

I would get the copy of the cheque first. I can't imagine that the bank would be able to provide the details of acct that it was paid into to you but I am sure they could to HMRC if it were legitimate for them to do so.

crazyguy

If it is a business to business transaction then surely you have an incoming invoice to which you wrote out the initial cheque against ?

srgo

thanks whitewing, thats wat i wanted to hear. Better nites kip tonite.:)

meer53

Ask your bank for a copy of the front AND back of the cheque, there is sometimes some info on the back as to where it's gone.