Taxi Driver Online

Hi, I'm in the process of doing my accounts and my fuel receipts are about the same as my takings! LOL

What is the allowed amount of fuel in relation to takings, someone told me 1 in 8 but I'm not sure how reliable that is.

Regards
Nick

I usually use the 1 in 10 way. For every 100 pound I take it takes 10 pound of diesel.
But surely you will be able to work it out youeself by adding up all your true takings and your true diesel receipts.

Wont you?

true takings and the petrol receipts i have add upto about the same, i also do courier work which is a seperate enterprise so i need to allocate the correct amount of fuel in relation to my takings.

1 in 10, is that about the average for petrol and diesel?

first of all nick, inland revenue assume all the takings are put in!

there are massive variances and the inland revenue have given thier officials guidelines on all aspects of tax when looking at driver accounts.

The pages are based largely on a private hire driver in Glasgow, I pulled mine off in dec 2002

its buisness economic notes 25 taxis and private hire,
dont expect any common yardstick it realy is not that easy!

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/bens/ben25.htm

Wharfie

Here's another that worth a look!

http://www.fraudweb.co.uk/taxi_drivers.htm

20% of my turnover is diesel,
Wharfie

you really ought to be keeping records of mileage (as a taxi) and personal / other job mileage. the IR aren't that stupid, if you have lots of fuel receipts that obviously means lots of miles driven & therefore lots of money taken, if its all taxi work. even if they are generous and give you 25% of takings as fuel you'll still need to explain where the other 75% of the cash went.

not that i know anyone who does it of course , but if you want to be a little naughtly and siphon off a little undeclared cash then make sure you lose the fuel receipts for those miles 'that never happened'.

basically keep all the receipts but you'll need to work out how much mileage you do. if you spend £100 a week on fuel, but 1/2 your mileage is personal or other work then you wont be able to submit all the fuel receipts as running costs, you'll need to prove how much is work related. i suggest you get an accountant to work it out for you, especially if you have a second income from the same vehicle. what the accountant cost will save you in the long run.

As regard your original question Nick, I don't think that any particular fuel/takings ratio can be used throughout the country.

In each area there will be a wide variety of cars - for example, we've got Octavias managing over 50mpg, to older big petrol cars doing less than 25mpg.

So if the Octavia uses £10 of fuel for £100, then the Beemer (say) will use £20, thus halfing the ratio from 10 times to 5 times, and that's just in one area.

Comparing different areas, even assuming the same vehicle reveals a wide variation.

For example, as regards the HC fares in PHM, the two mile run varies from about £3 to around £5, ignoring the 'freaks' at the top and bottom.

So if you got £100 of takings for £10 fuel in the high fares area, in the low fare areas you'd be using nearly £17 in fuel, so your ratio would reduce from 10 times in the high fare area, to around 6 in the low fare areas.

That's still assuming that fuel prices are the same everywhere, they obviously do vary, but not nearly as much as fares.

Dusty

The links provided by Wharfy are interesting, and to an extent they show that the Inland Revenue know more about the trade than we think, whereas on the other hand some of the stuff the include seems ridiculous.

For example, they say that if we do a lot of shopping trips and the like with big load then that will increase full consumption.

Also that we may keep our engines running in cold weather and that this will increase consumption.

Both these points have merit of course, but in the context of your question and normal practice, they seem ridiculous in the extreme.

Dusty

Dusty,

If the Inland revenue tell us to put more fuel receipts in for shopping trips, and more for heating the car in the winter (not to mention running the AirCon in the summer), then who the hell am I to argue with them!

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

I don't know if this is general or not, and they can be deliberately obtuse anyway, but experience with our Tax Office illustrates that if your fuel gets higher than 25% of take in a rural area where dead milage is 50% or worse, then they will spin your books big time.

They ain't stupid. This is not the Police you are dealing with.

They will look at your MoT tests and all sorts of other stuff to assess your mileage.

They will examine the dates of your fuel purchases for consistency.

They will even look at WHERE you buy your fuel. For example, you bought fuel at Gatwick on such and such a date, but no takings are shown?

They KNOW that not everything is perfect. And equally, they know only too well if someone is taking the [edited by admin].

They know rural cabs don't earn like they do in London. They have a pretty good idea of what we do and dont earn.

Because they know we dont earn that much, they tend not to give a lot of hassle, as long as we are reasonable. But tell them that your takings are the same as your fuel receipts, and I suspect you will get an "In-Depth" tax examination. And that, is something to avoid!

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

Tax what is all this tax lark?

Quite right Andy, but I'd like to see how much they think a few bags of shopping will affect fuel consumption materially, especially in your shiny new Merc

Dusty

Well Dusty, I find that a few bags of shopping drops me down to about ten miles to the gallon - all the way to the bank!

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.