Part Business / Part Personal query driving expenses

[chris3]

Hi, new to Quickfile so probably the first of many questions!

I am a soletrader. Currently, I pay for all of my petrol from my business bank account and keep a log book of all business miles.

At the end of the year I tell my accountant what the percentage of my total miles are business and they use this percent of the total I have spent on petrol for the year as the expense. I don’t reclaim any vat on my fuel costs.

I am not sure if I can continue like this with Quickfile or if there is a better way of doing this. Perhaps I should pay for my petrol from my personal account and then claim the percentage as an expense at the end of the year?

many thanks

[QFSteve]

Hello @chris3

I found the below thread on the forum which may help

Fuel expenses

Hi… I made a post here awhile ago in regards to keeping track of fuel expenses. However after trying to get my head around how to document it, I am still struggling. At present I have created a supplier named ‘Fuel’ and tagged my fuel expenses to this. So far I have Prepayments: £125.02 but I am yet to raise any invoices as I am unsure how I am to differentiate between business and personal miles being a sole trader. I keep a vehicle log book which helps me do this, but inputting it seems t…

[chris3]

Hi QFSteve,

Thanks for this. So it looks like I have been using the Actual Cost Method.

I am VAT registered but I have never reclaimed any VAT on my fuel expenses.

So to clarify, I can continue paying for all of my fuel through the business account and then at the year end make an adjustment to just claim for the business percentage?

If the business miles were 60% of total miles please can you show me how I would do this in Quickfile?

Also, when the quarterly MTD for income tax reporting comes into effect next year, will it be an issue that my fuel expenses reported each quarter will be revised at the end of the year?

many thanks

[QFSteve]

Hello @chris3

The steps are outlined in this article - Business mileage expense

[chris3]

Hi, thanks for this. However I plan to continue using my current system which I believe is called the ‘Actual Cost Method’ - namely putting all my fuel expenses through the business account and then at the end of the year making an adjustment to just claim for the business percentage.

Eg if business miles were 60% of total mileage how would I make this adjustment at the end of the year?

thanks

Chris

[ian_roberts]

You’d journal the appropriate amount for the personal portion (40%, in your example), credit the expense code where you’ve been recording the fuel costs to remove the expense from P&L and debit drawings - you have drawn this amount out of the business for personal use (that use happens to be to pay for personal fuel).