AIBU to find this bizarre?

[Magicmumma]

Hi all,

I’m asking this on behalf of my DS.

DS is 18 and has a part time job at Tesco alongside his studies. He was recently at another store during one of his contracted shifts as part of compulsory training .

He has tried to claim mileage but Tesco won’t reimburse mileage unless the claimant can provide a fuel receipt.

I think this is bizarre considering not everybody will need to fill up they car after their commute to and from another store, DS certainly didn’t. Basically they’re saying without a receipt they can’t verify he actually worked in another store that specific day.

But, how can that be so? A fuel receipt only proves how much fuel was put in and how much it cost as well.

Considering mileage is paid per mile and not per litre of fuel, can they really refuse him his mileage?

Surely the fact he worked in another store is recorded on a computer system which should be enough proof he’s not just claiming mileage for the sake of it?

Am I right to to find this ridiculous?

No but I work for a large multi site organisation with thousands of staff

It's getting silly now, what has your organisation's rules got to do with anything? Serious question - why are people saying that their employer does it differently so the OPs son doesn't need to provide a receipt? It doesn't need a brain surgeon to understand that procedures are different in different places.

It's stupid but it seems common practice.

I've had arguments with the payroll team over submitting the same pdf receipt for two different mileage claims ( in the same week) she didn't seem to grasp the fact that I didn't fill up for each trip.

I always keep my receipts now, I case I need one.

@magicmumma - can see why he's annoyed with it being 30 miles. If it was under 10 I'd have left it. Sounds a confusing policy

It's honestly not confusing at all. Their rules are that he needs a fuel receipt, he can fill up today and hand that in. I literally just checked my organisations travel reimbursement policy in case I was being stupid, but nope, you can't claim mileage without a receipt. Just have him put £5 in tomorrow and use that.

We detail the dates, reason and claim mileage at 45p per mile. No fuel receipts required.
If my boss sends me on a training course in another area, he has that recorded as does HR for the training records. No further proof needed.

I'm an auditor/accountant. As prior posters have said, it's so the employer can reclaim the VAT. Not all businesses can do this or need to.
The receipt doesn't have to match the mileage. It just needs to cover the VAT on the claim. We claim 45p/mile of which 2.5p is allocated to VAT so on a 100 mile claim we'd need a receipt for 2.50 of VAT. We just keep our receipts for all the fuel we buy in our wallets and then when we put in an expense claim we make sure that the VAT on the receipt covers the expense claim. Your son just needs to get a VAT receipt next time he fills up. If he's often working on other sites he needs to get in the habit of keeping fuel receipts. He should also make sure his car is insured for business use as this isn't commuting.

I used to work at Tesco. Yes it was standard policy to need to provide a fuel receipt, but it doesn't need to be on the day the journey was taken, and you don't need to provide one receipt per journey.

I'd need to claim multiple journeys on a single expenses form, I just provided enough receipts to cover the total amount I was claiming from roughly the time period. So e.g. one receipt for 50 pounds worth of fuel would be supplied for 4 journeys each of 8pounds worth over a two week period.

He just needs to provide any fuel receipt - and no it won't be a problem if it's not even his receipt. His manager will sign the expenses request to confirm the claim is legitimate. As others have said the receipt is just for accounting purposes.

But even individuals can claim mileage back in their tax return with just a log and no receipt so if can't be for accounting purposes.

@CurrynChips but the receipt won’t match the amount claimed? So it can’t be for accounting purposes. Or does he now have to go and fill up that exact amount in his car to get the correct amount receipt?

www.rrlcornwall.co.uk/articles/tax-blog/claiming-back-vat-on-mileage/

This explains about why an employer needs a receipt so that they can claim back the vat on a part of mileage that they pay.

Ahh! Interesting.

@shedidwhatnow I'm not sure what's confusing about my post. It doesn't need to be the exact amount, I'd just ensure they were at least as much as the amount you're claiming.

@Hollywhiskey has explained it from an accounting point of view (from which it seems it doesn't even need to be enough to cover the total cost just enough to cover the amount of VAT the company wants to claim back, but just covering the total amount you're claiming is an easy rule of thumb without needing to find out how much tax they're claiming back)

If you are travelling to a different place of work you get a mileage allowance. No receipt needed.

@mollysmummy2010 you are wrong. Tesco’s will have an expenses policy and part of that policy is that mileage claims must be accompanied by a fuel receipt. If an employee wants their expenses reimbursed, they follow the policy. @Hollywhiskey had explained this very clearly.

If you are travelling to a different place of work you get a mileage allowance. No receipt needed

Are you not reading the thread? It couldn't be any clearly that Tesco do need a receiipt

@shedidwhatnow
The amounts don't need to match. If I'm claiming 100 miles at 45p per mile my claim is £45. Of this, my employer can get 2.50 back in VAT. OK tiny amount but it all adds up and I would absolutely expect to provide a receipt for this.
So I only ever fill up a full tank, say £120 of which £20 is VAT. I can just give that receipt in with my expenses as my employer needs something over 2.50 for the VAT element.
I absolutely would not be standing at the pump trying to get an exact match. When I pay for petrol I always ask for a VAT receipt which I put in my purse until I claim my expenses.

@mollysmummy
Not necessarily true, this depends on your employer's policy and how they choose to treat it.