[Clive McDonald]

How much is reasonable to put down on the tax return for this, and where to include it?
The catergories are (on the online tax return)
Cost of goods sold
Travel
staff costs
rent                                  Here
repairs and renewals
telephone stationary and other office costs       or here

Other allowable business expensnses

[gto]

search for Vat, this was covered a little while ago, i think someone said they put 1/4 of there rent and heating/electric.

[daz1977]

it all depends on how easy u want ur claim,  you are allowed to claim £3 Per week with out the tax man wanting to investigate

u can claim more, but it get complicated as the tax man work out what percentage of ur time u actually spend doing work related things in your home, ie writing quotes, sorting paper work etc, if he feel that what u are claim is too high

ie if he says u spend 10h a week doing work related things then this is 6% of your week, then he will allow u 6% of the house hold bills to be claimed for work,  he also might say 2% and then allow u 2% of ur bills

the rules are also different if you have a room for work only, 

arnt tax return fun   

[Clive McDonald]

Good info daz thanks, but once i've got it sorted it will be easy every year, and i won't need to think.

I now have all of my expense catergories and where to put them. I think you are saying add this to the office expenses.

How much is reasonable for laundry?

[daz1977]

1 load a week, for work gear,   the local laundry charges £3 per wash,  so claim that

what u got to rememeber is the tax man expects you to rip him off, just dont do it stupily,  dont claim to make 15000 a year in 400000 house and 3 cars on the drive  u know what i mean

[daz1977]

where u claiming your water back if ur wfp

[Ian Lancaster]

where u claiming your water back if ur wfp

Our water company (Southern Water) is going to make everyone have a meter.  I've just ordered two meters to monitor the amount of water I use (one on the pure and one on the waste)

Add them together to get the total water usage.

I'll be putting the whole cost through my books - they can't argue if you keep accurate records of how much goes through your system.

[williamx]

you can only make 2 types of claim if you are working from home.

1  This is a weekly amount, check with your local tax office as they all have different figures on what they consider reasonable, I claim £5 per week.

2 With this method you can claim a percentage of your council tax, electric and gas bills.  You can only claim for water if you are on a meter.

The percentage you can claim is as follows, firstly you must have a room set aside for you business, you cannot claim if you are using part of the living/dining room, if you are using a spare bedroom, then this room must not have any type of bedroon furniture in it.

To work out the percentage you need to count out how many rooms you have in your home, you cannot count the kitchen, toilet, bathroom or hallways, also if you have a though lounge this is counted as 1 room.

So if you live in a 3 bedroom home with 1 living room, then the total number of rooms you have is 4, you are using one of the bedrooms so you can now claim 25% of your council tax and gas and electric bills.

[dd]

I add up all the utility bills for the year and claim 1/6 of the total for use of home as office. Done this for years as suggested by my accountant and never had a problem.

Tax man investigated me a few years ago and this was never raised as an issue.

Don't claim for a percentage of mortgage though.

[Clive McDonald]

How can i post an excel page on here. It's a gridded chart laid out with the self assesment tax questions and my answers. (not the figures)

A, this might make things easier for a few as i've gone to the trouble of figuring it out.
B. iF someone can point out an error or point to a superior method (extremley unlikely)  they win a prize.

[williamx]

Don't claim for a percentage of mortgage though.

You cannot claim for mortgage or rent unless the whole building is only to be used for the business

[williamx]

How can i post an excel page on here. It's a gridded chart laid out with the self assesment tax questions and my answers. (not the figures)

A, this might make things easier for a few as i've gone to the trouble of figuring it out.
B. iF someone can point out an error or point to a superior method (extremley unlikely)  they win a prize.

Go to the reply and press the Additional options, then press the browse and click on the excel spreedsheet you want to attach and hey presto

[davidsabishop]

 
There is specific guidance on the HMRC website
You can take ALL the costs of your house and divide by the number of rooms exc bathroom or toilet. But you can only claim for a room if it is exclusively for business.
ALL costs include mortgage council tax etc

[richyp]

u can claim for blow jobs also, professional fees!!! lol

[Smudger]

if you rent you can claim a percentage of the rooms you use to how many the property has ( not kitchen/bathroom) ie 3 bedrooms - lounge - dining room - study = 6 rooms   600 pcm rent     you use 2 rooms 1 as office the other storage means you claim 200 pcm as business

Darran

[williamx]

When I first started out in business, I went on several courses that the tax office hold.

I asked about this allowance and they where quite clear that you cannot claim for rent/mortgage.

Their reason for this was you would still have to pay this charge even if you was not in business, if you had to rent a larger property and you are paying more then this would be different.

If I was you I would first check with your local tax office, I would then telephone the Federation of Small Businesses.

Remember you can put what every you like on your tax return, it when they look at in an investigation that the poop will hit the fan, because if you are wrong, they will not accept your appoigies, they will work out the lost tax they will add interest and they will then add a fine, and this can  be huge.

They do understand about mistakes, but they will still fine you, if they think that you have done it on purpose then court action and possible prison will soon follow.

[Sapphire Window Cleaning]

it all depends on how easy u want ur claim,  you are allowed to claim £3 Per week with out the tax man wanting to investigate

u can claim more, but it get complicated as the tax man work out what percentage of ur time u actually spend doing work related things in your home, ie writing quotes, sorting paper work etc, if he feel that what u are claim is too high

ie if he says u spend 10h a week doing work related things then this is 6% of your week, then he will allow u 6% of the house hold bills to be claimed for work,  he also might say 2% and then allow u 2% of ur bills

the rules are also different if you have a room for work only, 

arnt tax return fun   

Whats that for?

You can claim 20% of heating and electricity of the house hold bill.
so if your electricity bill works out at £20 per week then you can claim £4 per week.
Telephone? if you state that its used for business and pleasure then you can claim 50% of the bill.
Your accountant will help you out.


Matt

[daz1977]

it was on here a few weeks ago, when all the tax return questions where being asked,

personally i never claim for house bills,   i claim for fuel, resin, water and van and equipment,  business mobile (not house)


one thing i do know is if you get pulled by the tax man, he checks you for 5 years afterwards

[Ian Mason]

Has anyone ever been investigated by the tax office, & found to have not claimed enough in overheads, or paid too much tax?

[Smudger]

hi hydro

thanks for the advice re rent claim in private home - I will check again with accountant, but did a recent course and I am sure this was allowable, have done a very quick internet search, and this link - scroll down to self employment seems to agree providing that room is SOLEY for your business - what do you think??

http://www.thetaxguide.co.uk/AllowableExpensesDeductions.html