VAT reclaim on supermarket purchases

VAT reclaim on supermarket purchases

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How do we treat the VAT element on say, a Tesco receipt when some items are zero rated and exempt and others are standard rated? It would be a very time consuming exercise to calculate it all manually. Also, how does it work with food purchased at a supermarket? I have a small food manufacture client who regularly buys ingredients from supermarkets for New Product Developement, some raw and some pre-prepared etc. Is there any VAT to reclaim on this?

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By George Attazder
01st Mar 2012 13:10

How hard can it be...

... to take the receipt and add up all the items with the little "*" beside them.  They're the VATable items, divide the total by 6 and you've got your VAT content.

All food items will be zero-rated other than the likes of crisps, confectionery, bottled/canned drinks, etc.

It's all there in the little "*" though.

You could always do two shops; one to get the zero-rated items (food, books, magazines, kids clothes) and one to get the standard-rated items.  I assume your client's got no need for any lower-rated ("**") items in his business (child's care seats, contraceptives, smoking cessation products and women's sanitary products)?

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By DMGbus
01st Mar 2012 13:15

Shop at Aldi or Lidl instead

Aldi and Lidl provide a proper VAT summary (showing totals for ZR and SR goods) on their till receipts unlike Tesco etc where you have a lot of work caused by having to add up individually coded amounts off a long till receipt.

 

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Replying to Kay Samantha:
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By david5541
01st Mar 2012 13:38

vat on receipts from tesco

DMGbus wrote:

Aldi and Lidl provide a proper VAT summary (showing totals for ZR and SR goods) on their till receipts unlike Tesco etc where you have a lot of work caused by having to add up individually coded amounts off a long till receipt.

garages do the same.

 

may be its time tesco took a leaf out of the aldi book?

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By George Attazder
01st Mar 2012 13:30

"a lot of work caused by having to add up"

You have heard of the calculator I take it?  And it's larger cousin the adding machine?

I've got to admit though that the thing I've always found tiresome about accountancy is all this pesky adding up.

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By DMGbus
01st Mar 2012 22:53

Time is money (for some) (for sum)

When a till receipt has 30 individual amounts, mixed ZR and SR interspersed, a calculator could be used.  Preferably, if an audit trail is to be kept to justify the VAT claim, a printing calculator.  It takes time.  Quicker and possibly cheaper to use Aldi or Lidl who do the work for you.    If you had lots of these Tesco receipts to book keep you'd you'd soon tire of it, unless you have enthusiasm for tedious extra work.

What I tend to do with these tedious Tesco (/Sainsburys / Asda) receipts is mark the SR items then add these up, divide this total by 6 = the VAT, attach till receipt to an A5 sheet of paper on which the proper VAT summary is then handwritten for the VAT records / writing up.   I retain my preference for following the excellent lead taken by Aldi and Lidl on this one - they do the tedious work for you, that is "oh so difficult!" for their bigger competitors.

 

 

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By jeh
01st Mar 2012 23:56

Tesco

I believe if you ask for a VAT receipt at the till, regardless of the Supermarket, they press a different key and produce a VAT printout. 

Whole lot easier than using any calculator!

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By caspararemi
26th Jun 2014 14:44

I found this thread googling for advice on accounting for supermarket food receipts.

Might be a dumb question but I'm putting in expenses for meals while freelancing. I go to Sainsburys and get a meal deal. The fruit juice and crisps are marked with an asterisk to show there is VAT, and the sandwich doesn't. The total is £6.25, but the meal deal discount takes it down to £3. If it was all VATable or there was no discount I'd normally put in one receipt for the VAT items, and another with the non-vat, so we reclaim the correct amount. But i'm baffled about how to account for the discount on the total.

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Replying to caspararemi:
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By aland
12th Apr 2017 18:20

caspararemi wrote:

I found this thread googling for advice on accounting for supermarket food receipts.

Might be a dumb question ........ But i'm baffled about how to account for the discount on the total.

Maybe get them to press the right button and give you a VAT receipt showing how they are going to account for it. That's what you and hmrc really need to know.
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