Self Employed!! I want to pay for my fuel by credit card. Is it acceptable form of reciept?

Question

for the taxman etc ? I thought it would be a much neater way rather than have loads of reciepts for fuel messing up the place! If it isnt, is there another neat solution?

I mean instead of keeping all the reciepts. Would the tax man accept my monthly credit card statement if it was used exclusively for fuel.

is there a fuel card which can work in any pretrol station?

Fengirl..is there another way to do it then without having to keep all the reciepts?

Answer 1

A credit card statement would only show who you paid and how much, not what for. That means you could have done your grocery shopping at the garage for example, so no is the answer. Easier is get a fuel card. I have Morrisons and Esso but there are many others on the market, you then get a detailed invoice showing how many litres, car reg etc and breakdown of VAT. Esso invoice fortnightly and Morrisons monthly.

EDIT: I think UKFuel is national, (most but not all garages) but they may well have a minimum spend requirement

EDIT again! you don't need to keep the receipts if you get invoiced, but I keep mine to cross-check against the invoice before consigning them to the bin. If you don't get invoiced the VAT receipt from the garage is your invoice so yes, you have to keep them all! Added thumbs up for Morrisons, I get about £60-£100 a year in vouchers collected on their "miles" card and they have a website where you can look up the locations of their garages and they are generally cheap.

EDIT: You do NOT need to keep each and every receipt from your fuel card if these are on a detailed, itemised VAT invoice, the invoice can replace them. At this point no payment has been made, these receipts are only a record of the quantity of fuel drawn. We have a total of 5 fuel cards between us, probably about 40 individual receipts per month, which are all itemised on the monthly invoice. Payment is made and this invoice is our VAT and tax receipt, not all the scrappy till slips which I throw in the bin after agreeing the invoice. Our tax office and VAT inspector are quite happy with this.

Answer 2

How many receipts do you get a year? Are they really that much of a problem?

One a day would only be about 250 for the year, and probably less depending on your holidays.

Fengirl is right that you should keep the receipts.

If the storage of these is causing you hassle then I would suggest that you keep the current year's receipts and those for the previous year. You could destroy the earlier year's receipts (but not the statements). If the Inspector opens an enquiry he will not look at the earlier years unless he "discovers" something wrong in the year he is enquiring about. Providing you have not tried to slip non-business items through in the year he is looking at he would normally accept that the figures on the statements in those earlier years are all business.

Answer 3

you have to have the vat receipt so that means the small receipts or the vat invoice for a fuel card, BP card are good the best cards at the moment are Total, however it depends on the garages around were you live and work and they usually only give fuel cards to those with a business and a fleet of vehicles

Answer 4

The Discover® Open Road(SM) Card is a great choice for you. It gives you up to 5% cash back on gas purchases as well 0% interst for 12 months. You can also use the statement for your tax accountants instead of piles of receipts. To learn more or apply for this or other gas credit cards, u may go here: http://www.creditcardondemand.com/gas-credit-cards.asp

Answer 5

Absolutely.. so long as it contains the fuel suppliers tax registration details and the tax component of the sale you may claim it for your business. Keep the record of the sale in a book or on your PC so you have a copy before you send it in though. And good luck with your business, your ambition will serve you well.
Every where you purchase just ask them for a tax invoice... they will know what you want... after all they are self employed just like you LOL

Answer 6

Don't know why you are confused. It's very simple. Based on the information you provided in the application, you have been approved. The bank will be verifying the info which will include pulling your credit report. If the info was correct, then you should have your card in about a month, worst case. It is likely that you will get the card within 2, maybe 3 weeks.

Answer 7

No, you need the receipts - card statements don't give the VAT number of the supplier and, more importantly, they don't show what was actually purchased.
EDIT: No, you need to keep all your receipts. Its a clear requirement of the Taxes Acts that businesses must keep full and accurate records of all income and expenditure. By not keeping receipts, you have no way of proving that the purchases are business related and so if you ever got investigated, your records would not bear examination, and so giving HMRC a reason to say that none of your records are accurate.

Answer 8

You could apply to the petrol company for a fuel card. Ask at the next BP station your are in or apply to them directly.

nb, they are graded insofar as you can ony get fuels and oils on some. The higher graded cards allow you to purchase other goods but it all depends what your requirements are of the fuel card.

Answer 9

Do you mean to use your statement as a receipt for your accounts?
OK in that case I would have thought not because the credit card statement, although it shows that the money was spent at a petrol station, could also include other items unconnected with your business. Best ask the Inland Revenue - they are very helpful

Answer 10

You could use a business card to pay for your fuel. Keep charges separate from any personal purchases. If you use a card that has a portfolio feature, in January you will receive a simple comprehensive document that lists all charges.

All the major cards offer this feature for business cards. American Express is my personal favorite for business expenses.