Claiming travel pass/oyster card as an expense without receipt?

[SamLH]

Hi, I'm self employed and filing my first return.

I had a monthly travel pass which cost around £1400 over 12 months.
I also have pay as you go travel costs at around £400.

I used an oyster card and paid for the monthly pass each month at my nearest train station. I got receipts at the time but moved flat twice in the last 12 months and can no longer find the receipts.

I have checked Oysters websites but they only have 8 weeks of logs due to privacy protection so that is of no help and they only send email confirmation when I made pay as you go payments not travel pass payments for some reason.

So the only record I have is my bank statement which says each month I made a payment at which train station.

I wasn't looking to claim on the pay as you go costs as most of these journeys would have been personal and not business but the travel card was mostly work related.

Can I still claim this as an expense using just my bank statement as evidence, also how would I prove that I used the travel pass just for work and not for personal and if I did make any personal journeys on the pass how would I deduct this?

If my bank statements aren't enough is there anything else I can do?

Thanks for any help

 

[Chris Ashdown]

You should be able to claim justifiable costs no problem the problem may arise if the HMRC do a visit and dont except it without the invoices and declare it invalid a few years later,

 

[Deleted member 59730]

I know that this is the wrong answer but............ I would buy a few different colour Petty Cash Voucher pads and a few different pens and create a paper trail using the dates when you know you spent the money on travel. The HMRC require records to be kept from the day.

After a going over by the taxman I did this for any cash spending and they were perfectly happy.

 

[Argentum Tax]

I would buy a few different colour Petty Cash Voucher pads and a few different pens and create a paper trail using the dates when you know you spent the money on travel

I would recommend against trying to create your own own false record after the event. By all means record the spending in your records but don't try to pretend it is a genuine petty cash receipt or voucher by using different colours and pens. This is only likely to excite suspicion in the eyes of an already naturally inquisitive HMRC officer. Remember that the local station is highly unlikely to issue receipts on a pad of petty cash vouchers whatever their colour!

 

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Going forward I'd recommend you print off your monthly Oyster journey statements, highlight the business journeys and file it away somewhere.

No real need for an Oyster card for PAYG journeys these days to be honest, just use contactless payments.

 

[vivente]

To me a simple monthly travel form should be sufficient. Date / Time / Details ie where you were going and for what reason / cost / signature.

The bank statements proves the payment of the expense and your records (travel sheet) confirm the reason the expense was incurred. Having the statement only proves you went from station a to station b therefore doesn't prove the expense was a genuine business expense. For that you will still need your records to show why the journey was made which is what the mileage sheet should be used for.

Go back through your diary and complete the travel sheet if possible. This is only pulling together information you already have in your diary therefore it is only writing up your records. This is not falsifying records. If you have no idea why the journey was made only that you are sure it was business related well you are in a somewhat trickier situation as regards your past expenses.