Gov.uk is clear that there are no rules on how you keep your records: on paper, digitally, or in a software program are all fine. What matters is the result: HMRC can charge a penalty if records are not accurate, complete and readable.
Can I throw away the paper receipt?
HMRC’s own guidance for its staff, the Compliance Handbook, says that photographing a record preserves an exact replica of the original. Once a record is kept electronically, the paper may be discarded, provided the way you store it can:
- capture all the information needed to make a correct and complete return, and
- reproduce that information in a legible form.
If your method cannot do both, you must keep the original as well.
Making Tax Digital
If you are in Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, you keep digital records of your income and expenses, and you still keep the original records or supporting documents, or copies of them, for at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for the tax year.
Keeping them with PencePal
In PencePal each photo or PDF stays with the expense it backs up, and the ledger counts the expenses still missing one. You can download everything in your account, receipt links included, as one file whenever you want a copy of your own. See the receipt scanner for how capture works.