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VAT receipts - what to do with illegible and/or incorrect ones?

I have been running my own small business and doing the VAT returns for 20 years or so without serious problems. I had one routine VAT inspection in my early years and they "tidied up" a few things but that was all.

I'm increasingly having problems with illegible and incorrectly dated VAT receipts and wonder what other people do about them.

The two major problems are:-

Printers in cash registers which have little or no ink in them, I find it difficult to read the receipts when they're new, in a few months they will be gone completely. Is it reasonable/legitimate to write the amounts etc. on the receipts and then file them away in the company records? The major current cuplrit is a local government (I think) canteen so it's very difficult to get any action on their part, is there anything one can threaten them with (i.e. a VAT rule specifying that receipts must be legible)?

Incorrect dates. In particular one train station where they have the date in US format - month/day/year. Thus I have a receipt dated 09/12/08 at the moment, which is actually 12th September. How will this look when I put it in my quarterly VAT return for what looks like the wrong quarter? Again is there anything one can do to get them to sort it out?

Reply to
tinnews
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In my view, yes. I've never had any problems with this during inspections.

... there's a surprise :-))

(I think) canteen so it's very difficult to get any

Immaterial - you weren't going to claim input vat in rail fares, were you? :-))

But generally, there is (AFAIAA) no requirement for UK format in dates.

My view on all this is that it's "their" problem, not yours. Others here may disagree - but I've never had an issue with this kind of thing.

Ultimately (at least for sane people) it's a question of whether your VAT100 is correct - not whether your records are indelible, formatted correctly etc. That said, it might be fun to insist on a legible receipt every time you buy lunch from your local government office. Methinks the long queues would soon be sufficient pressure for action on their part.

And if you do get a problem with the VAT man, just take him there for a cuppa!

HTH

Reply to
Martin

Martin is right as far as problems you will get with VAT.

If you want to demand your rights you can demand a VAT receipt. This must be legible.

The train ticket problem can be overcome by keeping for inspection a ticket that is for a day in the month after the 12th.

Martin says there is no requirement for UK date format but I don't remember seeing a requirement that VAT invoices have to be in English or Welsh but I'm sure HMRC would complain if they were in another language. I wonder how they would respond to dates in Chinese.

Reply to
PeterSaxton

Oops, of course, I'd forgotten that! I wasn't reclaiming VAT but I index the receipts by date in my accounts so the date has some significance for me.

Reply to
tinnews

I doubt they would complain if they were in a foreign language, as they regularly have to accept invoices from Europe that may be in an number of languages.

Reply to
Alan Ferris

The VAT is not claimed back in the UK though. What about invoices being issued though?

Reply to
PeterSaxton

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