VAT Refund - original documents

[laurenco]

Hi

 

Can the VAT refund be emailed in?  I've spent ages making a huge pdf of all the invoices in one document but I saw they want original invoices. As pretty much all of these are electronic, they'll all look like I just printed them off my computer —which I have— and so, sorry if this is a stupid question, but what would make them originals?

 

Thanks

 

 

[newhome]

No unfortunately you need to print and post everything. They will only accept hard copies.

 

 

 

 

[laurenco]

Just now, newhome said:

No unfortunately you need to print and post everything. They will only accept hard copies.

 

 

 

 

grr.. Thanks for this

[Temp]

You probably already know but.. They will let you use a spreadsheet to add it all up provided you keep the headings the same as the forms. But as above they want a printed copy with the original receipts sorted in date order. I numbered mine to match a column I added to the spreadsheet.

[nod]

Don’t forget to make copies of all invoices 

My wife and myself spent a full weekend getting the vat refund ready 

Most of that spent copying 
Like you we had all the info on a spreadsheet 

[jack]

1 hour ago, Temp said:

... with the original receipts sorted in date order. 

 

I'm sure others have suggested that they don't need to be in date order. 

[newhome]

3 hours ago, jack said:

 

I'm sure others have suggested that they don't need to be in date order. 

Yep, they don’t. They just need to be in the same order as you entered them on the form and with a unique reference number. 

[Temp]

I stand corrected (but that's ok, I'm used to it, I'm married).

[Wagas]

Does HMRC send back the invoices to the applicant after the VAT refund or do they keep them?

[recoveringbuilder]

53 minutes ago, Wagas said:

Does HMRC send back the invoices to the applicant after the VAT refund or do they keep them?

Yes you get them all returned 

[Vijay]

I seem to remember someone posting on here that they got lost on the return journey, so might be worth scanning/copying them just in case?

 

[newhome]

7 hours ago, Vijay said:

I seem to remember someone posting on here that they got lost on the return journey, so might be worth scanning/copying them just in case?

 

It used to be advised that you should physically drop the claim off to mitigate against it being lost in transit on the way there, but they must have got fed up with people dropping them off as you are no longer allowed to and have to use a courier. 

[ProDave]

2 minutes ago, newhome said:

It used to be advised that you should physically drop the claim off to mitigate against it being lost in transit on the way there, but they must have got fed up with people dropping them off as you are no longer allowed to and have to use a courier. 

I was going to post this question.

 

If my claim pack got lost in the post, that's over £7K gone west.

 

What courier is going to insure a package of paperwork for £7K and how much would they charge to do so?

 

I could photograph or scan every invoice in case it got lost, would that then be accepted for a subsequent VAT claim if the originals had got lost?

[Declan52]

I was the same absolutely wrecked with worry that my claim pack would be lost. I scanned every thing that was in the pack and double saved it on two separate devices. Sent the claim pack recorded delivery and followed it's every move till it got to its final destination when I could then finally relax.

[recoveringbuilder]

Yes I sent recorded delivery and they were sent back recorded delivery too.

[newhome]

On 30/08/2020 at 20:12, ProDave said:

What courier is going to insure a package of paperwork for £7K and how much would they charge to do so?

I sent mine ‘next day delivery before noon’ and that cost a reasonable amount. I couldn’t insure it for the amount needed (circa 25k) and even a fraction of that was £££. I assume that they may accept copies if the whole thing goes missing. Might be worth doing a decent scan of all the documents so that pretty decent colour copies can be printed if needed. 
 

On 30/08/2020 at 20:20, Declan52 said:

 

I was the same absolutely wrecked with worry that my claim pack would be lost. I scanned every thing that was in the pack and double saved it on two separate devices. Sent the claim pack recorded delivery and followed it's every move till it got to its final destination when I could then finally relax.

 

Same here! The courier system took a while to update and I was getting peed off that I couldn’t see that it had arrived for several hours after it had been delivered. 
 

I would aim to have it delivered on a working day rather than the weekend. 

[newhome]

Oh and I remember that despite living only 90 miles from Newcastle the poxy thing went to Edinburgh first, then across to Carlisle and finally to Newcastle. If there was one parcel I wanted to see take a direct route it was that one!