Question on travel expenses - taxis

[Ruprect]

Question on taxi receipts. I often get given receipts from cab drivers which are blank. Is it OK to fill them in myself, reflecting the amount paid? Or do HMRC during investigations assume dishonesty and not permit these receipts as claimable expenses?

[craig1]

Question on taxi receipts. I often get given receipts from cab drivers which are blank. Is it OK to fill them in myself, reflecting the amount paid? Or do HMRC during investigations assume dishonesty and not permit these receipts as claimable expenses?

If you regularly use taxis for a set route then HMRC won't grumble if you're adding a similar value, just make sure it's dated. If you have a number of £100 taxi receipts all in the same handwriting then you might be in for a bit of rubber glove treatment over the rest of your accounts.

If you want that as proper documented advice, call HMRC and ask them. I know the lot I deal with for my accounts are usually happy to give me a reference number that I can quote if audited.

[SueEllen]

Question on taxi receipts. I often get given receipts from cab drivers which are blank. Is it OK to fill them in myself, reflecting the amount paid? Or do HMRC during investigations assume dishonesty and not permit these receipts as claimable expenses?

Do they have the cab/driver id number pre-printed on and the driver just signs them?

I often get giving receipts with that on so in theory HMRC could cross check.

[Greg@CapitalCity]

Yes, those cab drivers seem to hand out receipts (even whole books of blank receipts) without too much regard for what goes on them. Write the details on yourself, and then on the back a quick summary of the journey (To/From) and purpose for the trip. Then if the amount is ever queried, at least you could describe the journey, and the HMRC could decide for themselves if the amount paid collaborated with the distance. I doubt it would ever come to that, but there is no harm being prepared.

Whether the HMRC inspector would "assume dishonestly" would probably depend entirely on the person you get. In my experience most are friendly, courteous, and take the time to understand the underlying nature of any expense claims queried.