When running a limited company you need to keep books and records of your business. There are strict record-keeping, accounting and reporting requirements for HMRC and Companies House. Failing to keep accurate and complete records can lead to penalty charges being implemented or disqualification as a company director.
You must keep details of:
(see quick guide: https://www.ouryclark.com/resource-library/quick-guides/corporate/the-persons-with-significant-control-register.html)
You must keep details of:
A good way of keeping records is within an accounting system. See our guide to The Best Cloud Accounting Systems
Records must be kept for 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate.
In essence this means you need to keep all records for 7 years (as it’s 6 years plus a year to count for the financial year).
Note requirements to hold them longer can exist if for instance :-
If you are VAT registered the requirements for record keeping are more imperative.
Failure to be able to show a valid VAT invoice can mean you are disallowed a deduction.
Copies of the actual VAT invoice itself are important, showing the VAT amount charged, not just proof of payment.
In short the UK takes a pretty prescriptive view of expenses records.
Although there are flat rate allowances and some scale rates which suggest you may not need to keep expense receipts, they must always been underpinned by proof of incurring sufficient costs.
In short always keep all expense records
There are numerous software tools (link to software advice guide) to help you manage these matters these day.
All records can be kept digitally or physically.
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