Expenses - per child? Or total food costs?

[MillyRoberts]

Am I right in thinking that you don't need to keep food receipts for tax purposes but you DO have to keep them for food hygiene?...
Also, I charge £5 per week for a hot meal each night for after school care. Do I put this in my accounts as £5 per child per week or just put the total of food bought each month?...
Thanks in advance!

[cathtee]

Hi yes you are right the receipts are for food and hygene, I put the total per week as a whole for all children, I do £1.50 per meal and total for expenses

[MrAnchovy]

Am I right in thinking that you don't need to keep food receipts for tax purposes but you DO have to keep them for food hygiene?

You don't need to keep any receipts below £10 for tax purposes. You need to keep all food receipts for environmental health purposes.

Also, I charge £5 per week for a hot meal each night for after school care. Do I put this in my accounts as £5 per child per week or just put the total of food bought each month?...

You can only put COSTS in your accounts as expenses so you can't just put in £5 per child per week because that is what you charge. You can either put in (with receipts) the food you buy if it is all for your mindees, or work out and cost up a typical weekly menu; you may well find that this comes to more than £5 and this is the figure you can use in your expenses.

[debbie1]

im in wales and i was told we only need to keep food receipts for 1 month i hope thats right lol as i have thrown each months out since may

[MrAnchovy]

There's no fixed time, you need to make it up for yourself based on "the nature of the food, its product life and the circumstances under which you may be required to produce the records". For fresh food a month should be fine but if you are using anything from the freezer you need to still have the reciept when you use it in case of any problems.