Recording Mileage

[NI MINDER]

Morning all - I seem to have a lot of small runs ... playschool (2 different ones), schools, toddler groups, park etc.
I have always put down a break down of miles which takes forever- wondering if it is permissable to record miles done per week without breaking down into individual journeys .
This would be easy to do as a general rule my car only used for childminding mon-fri and would make life easier.
Many thanks.

[MrAnchovy]

If HMRC challenge your figures you need to be able to provide evidence that they are correct: this is much easier to do if you have every journey logged, but if you are doing more than two or three short trips a day I can see the problem.

I would be inclined to do it every day (log the mileage at the beginning of the first trip and the end of the last trip), that way there is no danger of any private trips in the evening being accidentally claimed, and make a separate note of any journey over say 10 miles.

[aly]

i bought a 12p notebook from asda...and all i record is the date, the venue ie the range for craft shopping and the actual mileage....you dont need anything else.

[NI MINDER]

Thanks for your posts .... might keep a wee note book in the car and then just transfer total miles done that week over,

[Suebb1]

I keep a pad in car to jot down short journeys but have a printed mileage sheet in dairy of mileage for all main venues I attend ( including school runs and friends houses, toddler groups etc) in case I do forget to write in the pad.( my car is jointly use by both myself and husband so I have to relie on my trying to remember to write down each time. x

[Chatterbox Childcare]

I put all my journeys in my diary

i.e. hme-hl (school)-hme-ov(nursery)-hme-asda-hme-hl-hme etc

I was told by the hmrc that it is each individual journey and you round it up so it is worth looking at.

e.g.

using the above example
hme-hl-hme = 1.9 miles I claim 2
hme-ov-hme = 4.6 miles I claim 5
hme asda-home = 4.2 miles I claim 5
hme-hl-hme = 1.9 miles I claim 2

Total miles = 14 miles x .45p = £6.30

As one daily figure = 12.6 miles rounded up to 13 miles @ .45 = £5.85

No the difference is only .45p on this day but when you do a lot of miles it adds up - this small example for a 4 week month would be £9 in difference which is £117 per year.

Worth thinking about?

[NI MINDER]

Thanks Chatterbox - anyway of shaving a little more off always helps ;-)

Out of interest has many of you ever had a visit from the tax man. I worry that my book keeping is up to scratch. I just use a spread sheet and fill it in weekly. All my receipts are kept in a polypocket from year to year. Its ok as I fill it all in - but if I was visited I prob couldnt explain entries from 2 years ago if there were any queries. At least with spreadsheet all calculations are done for me - so no adding up errors!

[MrAnchovy]

That doesn't sound like a very good system to me.

Could you write a number on every receipt and put the same number in the spreadsheet, then print it out each month and staple the receipts to it in order?

I have lost count of the number of times I have seen a spreadsheet which does not add up because the first or last number (or both) in a list is not included in the total.

[NI MINDER]

Thanks Mr Anchovy - what i have done this year up to now is put receipts in date order and then entered them along one row in the spreadsheet labelled receipts ..... so what is in my pile of receipts is entered if that makes sense.
Its the number of rows I have for mileage for the different playschools/schools/ groups etc I was trying to cut back on - but looking at it again it is very easy just to fill across mileage costs for each run so maybe will just stick with it.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Thanks Chatterbox - anyway of shaving a little more off always helps ;-)

Out of interest has many of you ever had a visit from the tax man. I worry that my book keeping is up to scratch. I just use a spread sheet and fill it in weekly. All my receipts are kept in a polypocket from year to year. Its ok as I fill it all in - but if I was visited I prob couldnt explain entries from 2 years ago if there were any queries. At least with spreadsheet all calculations are done for me - so no adding up errors!

I write everything in a diary and put the receipts in the diary until I enter it on a spreadsheet. Once entered on the spreadsheet I staple a week together and put the week commencing date on it. At the end of the year my receipts and diary are stored away.

[mama2three]

I record the journey , for example i know a particular group is 13.1 miles round trip so record this and claim £5.89. I dont recall the actual opening and closing car mileage ...should I?

[Louise85]

I write everything in a diary and put the receipts in the diary until I enter it on a spreadsheet. Once entered on the spreadsheet I staple a week together and put the week commencing date on it. At the end of the year my receipts and diary are stored away.

Thanks for this- seems like a great idea, am going to start using this next week. I use the NCMA accounts book, but am thinking of doing a spreadsheet rather as it can autosum etc, would a spreadsheet be fine instead of using the NCMA accounts book?? Thanks again for sharing:jump for joy:

[aly]

Thanks for this- seems like a great idea, am going to start using this next week. I use the NCMA accounts book, but am thinking of doing a spreadsheet rather as it can autosum etc, would a spreadsheet be fine instead of using the NCMA accounts book?? Thanks again for sharing:jump for joy:
you can use any system you like as long as you can prove things wiht receipts etc should hmrc ask to see.

[CH1957]

I put all my journeys in my diary

i.e. hme-hl (school)-hme-ov(nursery)-hme-asda-hme-hl-hme etc

I was told by the hmrc that it is each individual journey and you round it up so it is worth looking at.

e.g.

using the above example
hme-hl-hme = 1.9 miles I claim 2
hme-ov-hme = 4.6 miles I claim 5
hme asda-home = 4.2 miles I claim 5
hme-hl-hme = 1.9 miles I claim 2

Total miles = 14 miles x .45p = £6.30

As one daily figure = 12.6 miles rounded up to 13 miles @ .45 = £5.85

No the difference is only .45p on this day but when you do a lot of miles it adds up - this small example for a 4 week month would be £9 in difference which is £117 per year.

Worth thinking about?


You need to be very careful about rounding figures up. I have worked for an accountancy practice for many years and the rule from HMRC was always if it is over the .5 you can round up and if it is under the .5 you shoud round down i.e. 4.2 should not be 5 but 4, but 1.9 can be rounded up to 2.
If HMRC decide to do an investigation they will challenge rounding if not done correctly.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

You need to be very careful about rounding figures up. I have worked for an accountancy practice for many years and the rule from HMRC was always if it is over the .5 you can round up and if it is under the .5 you shoud round down i.e. 4.2 should not be 5 but 4, but 1.9 can be rounded up to 2.
If HMRC decide to do an investigation they will challenge rounding if not done correctly.

I had a tax advisor come to see me and was told always round up. They do the same thing on your return it you put odd pence it in