We are sad when VAT registered customers don't reclaim all the VAT that they have paid. Stop crying, you say. We've claimed back all our VAT, you say, we kept our accurate records with Receipt Bank of our expenses and made sure we claimed for every coffee, every taxi ride in the course of our work.
But remember that day you went to Chepstow? Yes, that sunny day with the radio on and your sunglasses, cruising over the Severn Bridge to see a client? Did you claim the bridge toll?
No, you didn't, did you? You could have claimed that!
And what about that time you went into the centre of town to pick up some paperwork from a supplier, and you parked in the bay outside and put 80p in the machine for half an hours parking. Did you claim for that? I bet you didn't.
And how about that lovely Costa latte from the machine in the petrol station? Did you claim for that? DID YOU?
No, of course you didn't. Little cash payments like these just don't add up and we don't even register the money going out but it's your company money and it's totally reclaimable.
Oh, you'll say to us, but I don't have a record. I put the cash in the toll booth/parking meter/coffee machine but there's no record. HMRC won't let me claim the VAT without a VAT receipt, why are you nagging me about small cash payments?
Because we care, that's why. And because you don't actually need a VAT receipt for small cash payments because even the greatest bureaucratic nit-picking behemoth recognises that under some circumstances it just isn't practical to get a VAT receipt.
Here's the VAT Notice we're referring to: VAT Notice 700 19.7.5 Other circumstances
(b) you do not need a VAT invoice for some types of supply if your total expenditure for each taxable supply was £25 or less (including VAT). You must be sure that the supplier was registered for VAT. If in doubt, check with our VAT Helpline - this applies to:
phone calls from public or private phones
purchases through coin-operated machines
car-park charges (on-street parking meters are not subject to VAT)
a single or return toll charge paid at the tollbooth
You'll notice that we haven't asked you to reclaim for phone calls from public or private phones. Why? Because it's 2015, that's why. If you do actually put real coins into a public phone to make a call, let us know and we'll send you a slide rule. Otherwise, log those expenses (date, time, what for, which customer) and claim, claim, claim people. Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves, as my dad always likes to say.