You may feel like you’re drowning in paperwork when it comes to your business. By law you have to keep certain records but it doesn’t mean they have to be hard copies. With the use of cloud accounting you can store your records electronically, but what do you need to keep?
Copies of all invoices you issue
Invoices you receive
Debit or credit notes
Import and export records
Expenses which you can’t claim VAT on ie business entertainment
Records of goods which you donate
Records of goods which you use for personal use
Records of zero rated, reduced or VAT exempt items which you buy or sell
A VAT account
Self billing arrangements - this is where your customer prepares the invoice,
You need to keep a record of names, addresses and VAT numbers for any self billing suppliers
General business records
Bank statements
Cash books
Cheque stubs
Paying in slips
Till rolls
Retail
If you’re in the retail industry you don’t have to issue VAT invoices to your customers unless they specifically request one.
MTD
From April 2022 all VAT registered businesses, even those below the VAT threshold will need to keep records digitally under MTD rules.
All of the following records must be stored digitally:
Business name
Address
VAT registration number
VAT accounting schemes
VAT on goods or services you supply
VAT on goods and services you receive
Any adjustments you make
The tax point of transactions
Value of sales
The rate of VAT you charge
Reverse charge transactions
Daily gross takings
Items you can reclaim VAT on (Flat rate scheme)
Total sales and VAT
If you are unsure of any records you need to keep then discuss this with your bookkeeper or accountant. If you don’t currently have a bookkeeper to guide you then please book a discovery call.
Comments