business common-law receipts accounting
Can a private individual issue receipts?
<p>In certain jurisdictions such as Singapore, sole proprietorships must be registered. In these jurisdictions, can a private individual issue receipts?</p>

<p>Perhaps a more specific legal question is: where does the authority to issue receipts come from? Does it rest exclusively with the recipient? If governmental authorities are permitted, by law, to regulate (1) the form and substance of receipts, (2) who is authorized to issue receipts - to what extent may they do so?</p>

<p>All this is assuming the individual makes a sufficiently low turnover that we can ignore VAT/GST.</p>

<p>A receipt is just a written proof that money was taken. It is hard to imagine a place on Earth where the legality of giving such a proof would be questionable at all so that you would need to talk about an "authority to issue receipts". Only if you find a place where money itself is illegal.</p>

<p>Now, the real question here is whether such receipts (issued by private persons not registered as businesses) can be used for accounting purposes, e.g. to claim that <em>your</em> business, which transacted with those persons, incurred expenses.</p>

<p>The mere fact that sole traders need to be registered to do business does not outlaw the use of receipts issued by non-registered persons. For example, your business could be buying old stuff from the public (used cars, electronics etc.) and refurbishing it. Provided that this activity itself is not illegal, receiving receipts from those one-off private sellers, and using them in your bookkeeping would be perfectly legal too.</p>
