[[GQC] Tim]

I read on their website, that you gotta keep the little receipt for every time you pay in cheques or money. I thought it was enough to just keep your bank statements?

Pff, talking about making it difficult!

[Trevor Knight]

To keep your paying in book should be sufficient?

[Ian Lancaster]

I keep everything   It doesn't take up much room and there's no way I'm going to let them catch me out.  My son's father in law was investigated by the Revenue and he almost had a nervous breakdown over it.  They wanted to know about payments of sums as little as £5 from ten years ago .  The investigation lasted months and in the end he paid several thousand pounds just to be rid of them.

I have my daily worksheets, my diaries, all chequebooks and paying in books, invoices, receipt records, in fact every bit of paper ever produced in connection with my business, and they go back 15-20 years.

Better safe than sorry

[Paul Coleman]

I keep everything   It doesn't take up much room and there's no way I'm going to let them catch me out.  My son's father in law was investigated by the Revenue and he almost had a nervous breakdown over it.  They wanted to know about payments of sums as little as £5 from ten years ago .  The investigation lasted months and in the end he paid several thousand pounds just to be rid of them.

I have my daily worksheets, my diaries, all chequebooks and paying in books, invoices, receipt records, in fact every bit of paper ever produced in connection with my business, and they go back 15-20 years.

Better safe than sorry

I'm a hoarder too Ian   
We only have to keep the records for 6 years but mine go back to 1991.
It's been a lot easier to sort out since I started using a PC to keep my records around 1997.
In recent years, I have photocopied every cheque that went into my account - 3 per side of A4.  I originally started doing it after a customer ripped me off insisting that she had paid when she hadn't.  However, I started realising that it might be a good idea to keep them in case the IR ever wanted a look.

[Londoner]

Technically you should keep everything including household bills, credit card statements and recceipts for any hosehold and personal purchases even though they are not connected with the business. My accountant insists I do it.

If they do a full investigation they feed all this into a computer and it throws up a profile of your income and spending thats hard to argue against.

My advice is to get an accountant and not try to save a few quid by doing it yourself.

[neil100]

Ians Right you should keep everything in connection with your businness.

I have had a tax inspection into my Tax year of 2003 to 2004. Its been ongoing for 15 months, A lot of that is down to me being so awkward.

I would disagree with Vince on getting an accountant. I have employed two accountants for 25 years. Only for the reson that they know what to claim for and what not to claim.

The Tax man holds you and not your accountant responsible for your accounts. If the accountant claims for something your not entitled to you will be taxed, Fined and pay intrest on any tax,Plus if the Tax man finds anything wrong in a particuler year he is then allowed by law to look at a further 5 years. So thats intrest compounded  over 6 possible years, with penalties and surcharges to be added. So your tax bill could be quite big if you face an investagation.

The good news is, you have to agree with the tax man before he can charge you the tax. What you have to make sure is you dont agree, Wear the Tax man down and do not be overawed by them. If you cant agree then the Tax man will tell you he His bringing the enquiry to a conclusion. He will write to you with the extra Tax he wants you to pay and you will have 30 days to appeal.If you can still not reach a basis to settle the appeal it then goes before an Independent Appeal Commissioners. They will then make a ruling on how much tax you have to pay.

THe tax man does not want it to go to appeal if you are only dealing with a small amount of money. The trick is to get under their skin, show them your no pushover, The taxman on my last meeting started shouting and kept leaving the room to calm down, I wont tell you how I managed to wind him up.

But I told him  I thought the meeting was a waste of both our time and energy. I would not compromise and I disagreed with his arguments and that I knew the case was heading for the commissioners. The Tax laws are not written in Black and White just a shade of gray yhats open to interpretation.

If he wanted the case to end on Friday the 15th December at our meeting, then he would have to agree he could only Look at the one year concerned and forget about the other 5 years and wanted to look into.

In the end after a 3 hour meeting we both compromised. The enquiry as now been bought to a conclusion and I face a Tax bill of £290 which includes intrest.

But thats because my accountant claimed in allowances more then I was allowed, If I had better records on how I spent my money each week it would of made the enquiry easier.

Their are downsides to being Self employed and dealing with the Tax Man is one of them.

Nel.