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HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Just wondering if anyone else has had this letter?

I have to ring them in the next 14 days and have a 15 min chat about record keeping.

I've had a look online and seems fairly simple, but I'm still aware that you can be fined for doing it wrong, or trigger an inspection etc.

I'm all above board and I use Quickbooks for my accounting, I update every day with sales amounts and log every invoice.

The only thing I don't do is keep paper records, it can all be backed up with bank statements / PayPal etc.. I've looked online and I'm unclear if paper records are 100% necessary? My sales are for lots of low value items and printing a paper invoice is just not really logistically possible in terms of cost and time taken.

It says if you "fail" the phone call you could trigger further investigation into your record keeping.

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Not 100% needed, not anymore. Digital copies have always been fine for me.

Worth talking to an accountant though just to double check :thumb:

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Thanks James!

I had visions of me printing all my eBay sales receipts for the last 4 years.. Nightmare! :nono:

I do all of my own accounts as it's very simple income and expenditure, nothing overly complicated.

I shall research a little more and contact an accountant if I'm unsure.

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Geegee, I happen to know a thing or two about accounting.

If it's a high volume of items that you're selling then as long as you have some sort of record (be it a paper copy or an email invoice) then this will suffice.

I wouldn't worry too much about the phone call, it's more to catch people who guesstimate their tax returns/CT returns and don't have proper records.

Quickbooks is a good piece of software and as long as you have some sort of evidence for all transactions then I wouldn't worry.

More than happy to help if you have any other accounting questions.

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Really appreciate that utd!

I think I'm just over cautious really, as everything is logged each day, so it's unlikely to be far wrong.

I'm not even VAT registered just yet, so I'm not doing crazy amounts, but lots of small transactions.

I'll just ring tomorrow and get it out of the way lol.

Thanks again, and hope you got a bit further sourcing some products to sell. :p

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Yeah just get it out of the way, as soon as they know you have a piece of accounting software they will know that you are clued up.

Not got any further yet but I appreciate that these things take time. I must have used so much Internet bandwith on alibaba haha.

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Just seen your pm, knew you would be fine!

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Only problem you will have is you are required to keep records for 5 years.
Ebay dont keep your history that long.

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

:thumb:Yeah, very pleased it's sorted, the chap on the phone was really nice too.

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

PayPal will though surely..? Everything is on my accounts, so unless I can't explain PayPal deposits I can't see them being that concerned, it's all logged correctly.

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

You just need to worry about when paypal/ebay separate soon, what will happen to those records :noidea:

They may only keep recent transactions.

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Well if I have to keep records for 6 years you would think they do too.

Plus, I don't technically have to have eBay or PayPal records as such, just a correlation in what I say I took to what has appeared in my bank account.

It's a good point though and I think I'll have a look to see what I can print off and keep as a file, even if it's just the monthly statement. :thumb:

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

You can just save all the invoices as PDFs on a USB stick

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Paper records...waste of space - digital age

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Good idea James. I'll do that this weekend.

Exactly rsot.. I really hate clogging up my office lol.

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

I buy and sell stuff on eBay, do you think paypal receipt is enough for HMRC as a evidence of purchase/sale?

Thanks:thumb:

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Hah I hear that Geegee

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

dial up to access your ebay empire is modern?


:pound:

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Not modern at all - slow but unlimited long distance = golden...in a ways.

Re: HMRC Letter - Record Keeping
 

Piece of sh*t in other words.

:FF: