Expense Management | Input Tax on Expenses

The blocked categories arrive as expense claims. That is the whole problem.

Nobody submits a blocked input tax claim on purpose. They submit a medical bill, a client entertainment receipt, a running cost for a private car, and each one looks like an ordinary business expense on the way in. The category is checked at capture, so a blocked line is flagged to the employee submitting it rather than found by whoever reviews the return three weeks later.

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What the system does

Capability, input, output.

Capability	Input	Output
Tax invoice check	Captured receipt	Whether it is a tax invoice at all, and from a registered supplier
Blocked category check	Expense category + what was bought	Claimable or blocked, decided at submission
Private car costs	Vehicle-related expense	Flagged, since the block covers running costs and not only the car
Entertainment and gifts	Client entertainment, staff gifts	Treated per category rather than lumped into meals
Partial recovery	Your input tax recovery position	Claim restricted where full recovery does not apply
Return feed	Claimable expenses for the period	Input tax on the return, traceable to the receipt behind it

Tax invoice check

Input

Captured receipt

Output

Whether it is a tax invoice at all, and from a registered supplier
Blocked category check

Input

Expense category + what was bought

Output

Claimable or blocked, decided at submission
Private car costs

Input

Vehicle-related expense

Output

Flagged, since the block covers running costs and not only the car
Entertainment and gifts

Input

Client entertainment, staff gifts

Output

Treated per category rather than lumped into meals
Partial recovery

Input

Your input tax recovery position

Output

Claim restricted where full recovery does not apply
Return feed

Input

Claimable expenses for the period

Output

Input tax on the return, traceable to the receipt behind it

Compliance + integrations

Claimed wrongly is worse than not claimed.

An input tax claim you were not entitled to is repayable, and a pattern of them is the kind of finding that turns a routine review into a longer conversation. The categories are settled and knowable, so the only reason they get claimed is that nobody checks at the point the receipt is submitted, which is the one moment the person who knows what it was for is still in the loop.

Regulations we work within

GST Act

Input tax claimable only on a valid tax invoice from a GST-registered supplier.
Blocked input tax

Medical expenses, club subscriptions, family benefits and private motor car costs flagged rather than claimed.
Records retention

The receipt behind every claimed line kept for the statutory period, retrievable from the return.

Connects to

IRAS The F5 return the input tax feeds
Xero Expense and tax posted to the books
QuickBooks Expense and tax posted to the books

Input Tax on Expenses FAQ

What buyers ask.

Our staff claim mileage and parking on their own cars. Is that input tax we can recover?

Generally not, and this is the one teams get wrong most often. The block on private motor cars extends to the running costs, not just to buying the car, so petrol, parking and servicing on an employee's own vehicle are caught even though each individual receipt looks unremarkable. The system flags them at capture so the employee is not surprised and the claim is not made.

What about entertaining a client over dinner?

Business entertainment and staff meals are not the same category and should not be coded as one, which is what happens when both arrive as "meals" on an expense report. The system asks who the expense was for at submission, when the person who knows is still holding their phone, rather than leaving finance to guess from a restaurant name.

The receipt is not a proper tax invoice. Can we still claim?

No, and this is the quiet half of the problem. A card slip or a payment confirmation is not a tax invoice, and plenty of what employees photograph is one of those. The check runs at capture and asks for the actual invoice while the employee is still standing in the shop, which is the only time getting it is easy.

How do we find claims we have already made wrongly?

Run the check back over prior periods and it lists claimed lines that fall in a blocked category or lack a valid tax invoice. Finding them yourself and correcting them is a materially different conversation from having them found for you.

Related features

Find the blocked input tax you have already claimed.

Connect your books, free. The check runs back over your claimed expenses and lists the blocked categories and the receipts that were never tax invoices.