Lost Receipts

ncassidy

Hi there

I am self-employed and I got rid of my accountant half way through last year and she swears blind she has no receipts of mine although I know 100% that I gave them to her. I am highly organised and everything from October is all filed away but I now I am doing my self assessment, I am missing 6 months receipts (from april to october). Can I not claim for these? I feel quite hard done by as it is not my fault Can I average out each monthly outgoing and times by the missing months?

Thanks in advance!

Elaine_Wilson

You are allowed to claim for relevant expenditure incurred. Since the return is self-assessment you can deduct the expenditure even if you do not have the receipts. OK, that's the good news.

Now the downside. You need to sign the return and the declaration states that the return is "correct and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief". So you must not include expenses unless you honestly believe that you paid for them.

Were all these expenses paid in cash? If you used cheque or credit card then you should be able to get independent confirmation of the amounts expended, even if there is no evidence as to what the payments were for.

If they were in cash then, yes, some form of averaging may be acceptable. Be sure that the method you use is appropriate. Do the expenses for any given period average out at a percentage of turnover? If so, then use this fact in the calculation. Make allowances for holidays. Do you have other evidence, such as mileage readings to confirm petrol consumption.

Bear in mind what will happen if the Inspector opens an enquiry into your return. You will have to convince him (or her) that your calculated figures are reasonable. Any deviation from the amounts spent in previous years would be looked at closely. If you cannot reach agreement then you would need to convince an independent body of Commissioners.

So, make the claim but take it seriously.

ncassidy

Hi Elaine

Thanks very much for that -thankfully most of them are through my business account so I have evidence for them!!

Much Appreciated!