To invoice a year after doing the work

[meganorks]

I'm doing my tax returns. I have just realised that I haven't invoiced for a project I did that equates to c. £1500k! I'm so embarrased. Should I contact them? Do you think they would pay me now? Its a fairly small company.

I think it got missed as I had various other projects for the other same client so somehow I have missed it. To clarify - All the work I have done is for the same company but they have various clients. I had 3 projects at the same sort of time for the same one of their clients. I tend to invoice a few projects at a time if I have several on, rather than 1 for every individual project.

It was at the end of the last tax year. The amount would put me over the tax free amount. I am under otherwise. So maybe I should work out how much I will actually get.

YABU - It's your mistake it is too late to invoice now
YANBU - You've done the work and therefore you are owed the money

Invoice now, you will get the money this tax year so don't worry about your tax return.

You’ve got nothing to lose by invoicing them, @meganorks - at worst they say it is too late, and at best, they pay up.

Do the invoice, just admit to an admin error if questioned. You are still owed the money and any good company (of any size) would've accrued your fees anyway and be ready to pay.

Invoice, the statute of limitations is 6 years plus the current year so well within the limit.

What you would lose is probably 20% of the amount over your tax free amount. So, still worth it.

Raise the invoice and apologise for the oversight in not sending it previously. I suspect they know they haven't paid and are just waiting to see whether you realise.

If they have forgotten and say they can't pay immediately maybe offer a little flexibility about making payments over a period of time. But get any such agreement evidenced in writing with a set final date by which it must all be paid.

Invoice them. They knew they hadn't paid. I know plenty of small businesses who don't invoice smaller jobs until year end.

I don't think they will have an issue with being able to pay, but not sure whether they will or not. I know the owner and his business partner well. I imagine the owner will say 'Well that's meganorks' fault! I'm not paying now!' I think the business partner will be more sympathetic and say they should pay up without any questions
What an idiot 😳

Unless it was in the contract that sums invoiced after X date were not due, then they have to pay regardless of timeliness.

You did the work, they should pay you. I often have to chase people to send their invoices - I think it's relatively common to forget when you have a lot on.

If they don’t pay take them to court

Why are you trying to stay under the tax limit. Are you not offsetting overheads?

This is bad advice.

Whether it affects this year or last year's tax return depends on if your accounts are using the accruals basis or the cash basis. Default is accruals basis, based on work done in the period. Cash is irrelevant if this is what you're on. You have to elect to use the cash basis on your tax return so it's entirely possible that whether it's been paid (or invoiced actually) or not doesn't matter.

Invoice it - i work for a small company and if someone invoiced a year later that had forgot we would pay it no problem.

You did the work, they should pay it. Unless you had a contractual clause which stated that the invoice must be sent in a certain timeframe, you are absolutely in the right to send it.

justasking111 - I am offsetting overheads but I just use the basic HMRC working from home calculations and very occasional additional stuff like travel expenses. It doesn't equate to much

Of course you should invoice. They likely know it's still to be invoiced. If its a small company, they'll have (or should have!) it on their system. When I was a FM for a small company in similar circumstances, I'd enquire with the supplier as to when I can expect their invoice. Integrity....

Of course you invoice, you don't work for free!
If the company is still operational, they need to pay you.

Please invoice. Our plumber hasn't invoiced for work 3 years ago. He did three weeks work at my next door neighbour. We've chased and chased and he keeps promising to tell us what we owe. I stopped chasing last year as did my neighbour but certainly have paid and will still will if he tell us how much we owe and how I pay.

Invoice them, part of my job is paying suppliers. This has happened with small supplier and even big ones. Last small one was a lady who does design, I had no idea she did work for the MD so didn't look for an invoice, MD doesn't have anything to do with my side so didn't know she hadn't invoiced. She forgot to send it in and like you realised when doing taxes, told me, I paid her that day.

I also recently got one from a large supplier for over 100k that according to them should have been paid 6 months ago. Only they never sent the invoice. I have told them, we will pay but we will take their full credit terms from the date the invoice was received.

You know on your tax return you can opt to pay tax on when the money comes into your account, not the year you did the work. I always do this as in the past I had some late paying clients and I found it hard to pay tax on money that hadn't yet arrived in my account. If you tick this option, until you are paid, you don't legally owe the tax, so you can still come in under the threshold.

Just send them an invoice and say you've just done your annual accounts and have no record of payment for this job. Not sure if you missed the original invoice or they did but here it is and you would appreciate prompt payment on this, as the work was completed last tax year.

It's not a problem,

"£1500k" do you mean £1500 or £1,500,000?

Bit of difference hopefully it is £1500, if the people know they ordered and have had the work done they should have budgeted for it , unless they had planned to scam you. Invoice it and keep better tracking in future.

Why would they not expect to pay, even if you are late invoicing them? They've had the work/service. They pay.

I'd reconsider working for people who you think would be so willing to screw you out of a living.

This is what I was coming to say.

It’s as much on them that they had work done and didn’t notice they hadn’t paid for it.