Sole trader expenses

emma1801

I have a question.

A sole trader who regular purchases materials from market traders who has not received any receipts.

Can he claim those expenses in his accounts?

And if he can is there a cash limit to which he can claim?

Look forward to your responses.

T.C.

In simple terms, no receipts, no claim. However, if he has some other proof, ie credit/debit card receipts, bank statements etc, you could use these. Basically he needs to keep better records!

deanshepherd

In simple terms, he can claim whatever he spent.

How will he prove that if HMRC ever open an enquiry into his records? With difficulty.

Most market traders will give a receipt if asked. If they don't, then he should generate his own petty cash receipt at the time as a written record.

Laura8192

I have a client who regularly has small expenditure which she doesn't get a receipt for, for example internet on trains, as well as forgetting to ask for receipts for small purchases. So I have told her to carry a petty cash book round with her, if she gets a receipt, staple it to the petty cash receipt, if not, at least I have some form of written record to include in the accounts.

T.C.

Agreed. Sensible answers! :001_smile:

lor

also what about a situation where perhaps a months worth of receipts are lost......I've had this before so we had to look at previous months and average it out to work out some of the expenditure and get copies of most of the receipts that they were able to. As this does happen and you can't just accept no receipts no claim.just giving another example of why there may not be any receipts.

LOR