Entering passenger car fuel as an expense

Hello,

Um... by summary, do you mean a summary you have created yourself? Because that won't be sufficient for a tax audit.

You will need to have some kind of documentation, at least receipts (those little payment slips). I don't think a bank statement is enough, because it does not state whether you actually filled up (you could have bought something in the shop), what fuel you used (was it your car)...

If you occasionally lose your receipt, you could take the risk of entering it with the bank statement, if you realise that this could possibly be a problem during an audit.But I wouldn't always do it this way (i.e. via bank statement). You need the receipts at least to claim the expense (it's not even enough to reclaim vAT, for which you need an invoice).

Such a summary is more appropriate if you were to claim your car expenses on a flat-rate basis. X amount of pence per kilometre and then keep track of all the kilometres (from which one gets mad). But you do have to prove the actual costs incurred with invoices, receipts, tickets, etc. My accountant always used to say that bank statements weren't enough.

Thank you for your answers!

I'm not used to filling up my car as a self-employed person and printing out the receipts. Oh dear... so I really need to get into that habit from now on.

For the petrol I've used so far, I'll use a flat-rate amount based on the amount of kilometres.

Why not try a fuel card?

Then you don't have to keep every receipt, but you just get a month invoice in your mailbox.