SE & working from home - what can I claim?

supergolden88

Hi everyone - this is my first SE tax return and I would appreciate some help!
I am a freelance designer working from home about 65% and rest of the time working in-house at various companies. Is there some formula to calculate how much I should claim for electricity/gas and anything else (phone, internet, council tax??)

I am at a bit of a loss because stupidly the virgin account (which is phone, internet, mobile all used for my job) is in my husbands name and he pays for it. We tried various times to change it through Virgin but get given such complicated solutions (because it's a 4 for £40 deal) that we never got round to changing it. Is there a way around this?

holder

I was just about to ask a very similar question??

i have been putting £2 per week for the last few years but have a seen somewhere that they are letting people put a little more on this for the 07/08 tax year?

Any advice would be good as i know its not a lot but £104 per years all add up:)

Cheers Holder

orangeslimes

Hi,
I think for stuff like the phone and internet you can calculate based on how much you use it for business versus personal. i.e. if half the calls were made on your phone are for your business you can claim 50%.
Electricity/gas you can claim based on how much of your house you use for business- ie. if you have 5 rooms in your house and one room used purely as an office you might claim a fifth
If you have a mortgage you can claim a portion of the interest similar to electricity/gas.
I don't think you can claim council tax.
I don't think it matters that it is in your husbands name that much - just make sure you keep copies.

Saying that I would like to put the disclaimer I am not 100% sure- but this is how it seems to work from my experience of working for an accountant doing books for various SE people. (if you really want to be sure you get it right you prob need to ask a qualified accountant but that costs money obviously)

ks62uk

HMRC have examples of claiming for using your home as an office at
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM47825.htm .
You can claim a proportion of:
Mortgage interest/rent
council tax
electricity
gas
home insurance
general house repairs eg roof, external painting
Specific repairs/decoration to a room that is used exclusively for business.

If you use a shared room for several hours per day for work and it is a family room for the rest of the time, the amount you can claim is pro-rata'd to the actual proportion of the time that room is used for business purposes. (Example 4 on the HMRC page)
A £2 weekly estimate (2007/08) and £3 (2008/09) can be used.

You can claim capital allowances on equipment and furniture bought for business use in your office.

There is a guide to tax deductible expenses at
http://tips.hrbs.biz/running-your-business/tax-deductible-expenses/. (I haven't found a better free guide yet, anyone know of one?)

Internet etc - claim the proportion of business use in your tax return.
You can also claim mileage to and from your clients (and other business journeys such as the bank when you pay in cheques), using the HMRC approved rates of 40p per mile (1st 10k miles per year) and 25p (10k +). If you do this you can't claim any fuel or vehicle running costs as they are covered in the mileage allowance. You can claim parking/tolls etc for business journeys.

stphnstevey

I think I am right that if you are an employee you can only claim a proportion of

electricity
gas
water (metered only? - I think)

However a company or self-employed can claim alot more, as listed below

supergolden88

thanks so much this was very helpful