HMRC Letter - Record Keeping

[Geegee83]

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.

[JamesNorth101]

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

Worth talking to an accountant though just to double check

[Geegee83]

Thanks James!

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

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.

[utd]

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.

[Geegee83]

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.

[utd]

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.

[utd]

Just seen your pm, knew you would be fine!

[Bunneh]

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

[Geegee83]

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

[Geegee83]

Originally Posted by Bunneh

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

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.

[Bunneh]

Originally Posted by Geegee83

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.

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

They may only keep recent transactions.

[Geegee83]

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.

[JamesNorth101]

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

[rsot]

Paper records...waste of space - digital age

[Geegee83]

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

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

[Dawidck]

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

Thanks

[rsot]

Originally Posted by Geegee83

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

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

Hah I hear that Geegee

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by rsot

Paper records...waste of space - digital age

dial up to access your ebay empire is modern?

[rsot]

Originally Posted by GreenBean

dial up to access your ebay empire is modern?

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

[GreenBean]

Piece of sh*t in other words.