Claiming all tax rebates (car depreciation, home expenses etc) PAYE Employment

twisterzzz · 19 November 2017 at 9:07PM

I'm looking at the options of reducing my tax bill (from PAYE employment) and claim all possible tax allowances and rebates. My situation is as below

- Employed full time and paid monthly as PAYE (base salary + car allowance + variable commission )
- Employer contributes towards pension, however no additional benefits (such as medical, dental etc)
- I work from my home office (My employment contract states the normal work location is my home)
- Regularly use a personal car for business trips and compensated 45p per mile
- Don't have to wear a company uniform however have to buy personal clothing and accessories for business meetings (for which I'm not compensated)
- Company compensates for home broadband, phone and *some* office equipment
- Submit HMRC annual tax self assessment since I also have some rental income

My questions about tax are as below.

- Am I able to claim tax rebate for car expenses (car depreciation, repair bills, insurance and tax costs) given that I use personal vehicle for business trips
- Am I able to claim tax for home office (buying equipment, energy use, gas and electric etc) since I work from home
- Are you able to suggest any areas where I am able to claim tax rebates given my situation above

** I understand that I need to speak to a tax adviser to receive a precise advise however I am only expecting some guidance from this forum please **

Thank you in advance.

Dazed_and_confused · 19 November 2017 at 9:20PM

Car - doesn't appear so as you are paid the maximum tax free amount by your employer. In fact if you do more than 10,000 business miles and receive 45p on anything over 10,000 miles you will be deemed to have made a profit (benefit in kind) and would be taxed on this.

Use of home - possibly, depends on the specifics but there is a simple version (tax relief due on £x/week) which avoids the need to worry about actual costs - gov.uk probably has more details

Other rebates - if you have completed your tax returns accurately why would there be any rebate due?

As you don't mention what your income is it's difficult to know what might be relevant but the usual suspects are pension contributions into a private pension or SIPP (these don't reduce your income for tax purposes but do increase the amount you can pay 20% tax on so will benefit a higher rate payer to some degree). Same goes for gift aid.

Purchasing ordinary clothing has no tax relief due, with the exception of a few naturists most of the country has to do this.

Pennywise · 19 November 2017 at 9:21PM

twisterzzz wrote: »

Am I able to claim tax rebate for car expenses (car depreciation, repair bills, insurance and tax costs) given that I use personal vehicle for business trips Not if you're already getting 45p per mile from your employer.
- Am I able to claim tax for home office (buying equipment, energy use, gas and electric etc) since I work from home Yes, HMRC allow a £4 per week allowance, less any contributions made by your employer

You can't claim clothing etc unless it's either for H&S or protective clothing - "normal" clothing is not allowable

BoGoF · 19 November 2017 at 9:22PM

The 45 ppm is to cover all your car running costs so nothing further due.

What 'equipment' are you buying and why isnt your employer supplying it. Re energy costs HMRC allow tax relief on £4 a week (may have increased).

There really isnt much else you could claim for tbh

TheCyclingProgrammer · 19 November 2017 at 9:39PM

As mentioned above you can claim £4/week for use of home. If you think your additional utility costs are more than this you may be able to claim that instead but you’d need to demonstrate how you calculated it. No calculations for the flat £4/week.

Is your employer paying for a separate phone line and broadband or are they paying you additional money towards the costs of your existing line rental and broadband? If it’s the latter then you may find you are taxed on these payments as a benefit in kind, because you aren’t incurring any additional costs here (except business calls which you can normally claim for separately).

twisterzzz · 19 November 2017 at 9:40PM

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

As you don't mention what your income is it's difficult to know what might be relevant but the usual suspects are pension contributions into a private pension or SIPP (these don't reduce your income for tax purposes but do increase the amount you can pay 20% tax on so will benefit a higher rate payer to some degree). Same goes for gift aid.

Total income from employment are in the region of £115K if that helps. I (employee) put 4% into personal pension and employer matches it. HTH

BoGoF · 19 November 2017 at 9:45PM

4% is pretty low unless you have other pension provision

twisterzzz · 19 November 2017 at 10:07PM

BoGoF wrote: »

4% is pretty low unless you have other pension provision

4% from my side + 4% from employer = 8% in total
If that's low, what is normal. I do have some other saving arrangements which are irrelevant from my original question.

BoGoF · 19 November 2017 at 10:16PM

Your original question has been answered so if you want to pay less tax you need to look at other options such as pensions......especially as your earnings mean you are losing some of the personal tax allowance.

Dazed_and_confused · 19 November 2017 at 10:20PM

Google adjusted net income.

This is what determines your personal allowance and additional pension contributions (and gift aided charitable payments) can both reduce your adjusted net income.

They also increase the amount of 20% tax you can pay, reducing the 40% tax paid.

twisterzzz · 19 November 2017 at 10:47PM

Dazed_and_confused wrote: »

Google adjusted net income.

This is what determines your personal allowance and additional pension contributions (and gift aided charitable payments) can both reduce your adjusted net income.

They also increase the amount of 20% tax you can pay, reducing the 40% tax paid.

Very helpful, I'm looking into that, thank you so much.

Claiming all tax rebates (car depreciation, home expenses etc) PAYE Employment

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