builder wont give me receipt & wont respond to contacts.

aab_4

I am a self employed child minder and had my back garden landscaped last august including resurfacing wiith resin set stone. It is beautiful and was completed professionally and on time. I asked for a receipt when I paid cash and he said he didnt have one with him but hed drop one round. It was for £1200 cash. I Asked again a week later by text then another week later. Then I left a message on his machine and got no reply and then I let it lapse until last week when j started my tax return and I remembered that I should have this receipt. Despite many attempts this week and last I still have not had any contact from him. What can I do to balance my books? Am I ab le to write out a receipt or my own proof of payment to show how I spent this money on a play surface and how can I force a receipt if this fella has ceased trading or changed his name which is what I suspect has happened? a

lincroft1710

aab wrote: »

if this fella has ceased trading or changed his name which is what I suspect has happened?

It's far more likely that as you paid cash, this job has not gone through the builder's books, which is why he didn't give you a receipt.

mountainofdebt

I suspect, that its not a case of him ceasing trading but ignoring you because if he wrote you a receipt then it wouldn't be a cash in hand job would it ......not suggesting that it was that but that's I guess he's treating it.

I doubt very much you can write your own receipt - can you claim for this work in any case?

bris

Nothing stopping you writing your own receipt.

If you know his name and address just write your own receipt, the tax man will accept it and he would be the one having to do all the explaining if it gets a pull.

pinkshoes

Send him a message saying that you have written a receipt on his behalf as you need to balance your books, and have passed his details onto the tax people so that he can send them the receipt directly.

bod1467

Is the work that was done a valid claim to offset against taxation?

dandelionclock30

I recon hes working on the side.

payless

bod1467 wrote: »

Is the work that was done a valid claim to offset against taxation?

I agree, this does not sound like exclusive business use, so make sure you are clear on what percentage you are a claiming and why, also this sounds more like capital expenditure , so if claimed this may mean that you are opening up doors with regard to loss of a percentage of PPR against cat when selling you house.

mountainofdebt

I may be a bit thick here but how would the OP writing the receipt work?

If that was the case then theoretically they could write receipts until the cows come home.

Would the taxman accept a 'I paid joe bloggs builders £1200 (honest governor) note'?

Spank

If he was doing it on the sly & he has to pay tax expect a new bill to reflect this.

bod1467

Not necessarily. He can't just charge extra if he hasn't made that clear previously.

But this was a B2B transaction (it must be if OP thinks it can be tax-deductible), so it all depends on what were the T&Cs of the contract.