Can I claim for wifes work?

Greenish

I am self employed and work from home. I am a teacher visiting peoples houses.
My wife organises all my appointments, cancelations, new students etc and all the general associated office work. Without her the business wouldn't work.
I don't have an accountant and I fill in my own (short) tax return online. Apart from a few office expenses and a small percentage of the household bills etc, the only thing I can claim against is fuel.
My wife is retired and claiming a very small state pension. (£100 per month approx)
My earnings are quite intermittant as I have no contracts etc, I just rely on how much work I have in from week to week.
Can anyone tell me if I could claim against paying my wife a wage and how much she is allowed to earn before becoming liable for tax etc?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

CLAPTON

In principle you can pay her to do your office work but it must be reasonable.
If she is less than 65 then her tax allowance is 6035 this year rising to 6475 for 2009-10..
this means that if her total income (i.e. salary, pension, interest from savings ) is les than those figure she will pay no tax.

fengirl_2

Just to add to what Clapton has said. HMRC could argue that the tasks you describe are normal wifely duties and how have you managed without her up until now? You also need to make sure that money actually changes hands and that you can show a trail of money leaving your account to hers.

Greenish

Thanks very much for your help. My wife is over 65. Does this make a difference?
I realise that the Inland Revenue could argue that my wife hasn't been paid for this work before but she actually does put a lot of work into the business and I presume this would be a legitimate expense. I wouldn't want to claim any great amounts and it would be paid directly into her account.
I would have set this up a long time ago but didn't know where to turn for advice. I feel there are probably other things I could claim against. Is there any form of general expenses list anywhere on the net?
Thanks again.

fengirl_2

Your wife's age is not relevent. You are correct when yu say that HMRC could argue that you have done this job for ages without having to pay someone for it. There is no list of expenses - every business is different and its up to the person running the busness to make sure they are including in their records all the expenditure they have incurred in earning the profits. The key is to keep good records.

Elaine_Wilson

For some guidance as to what may be claimable click on this link. That takes you to the HMRC website. Then download the pdf file for the guidance notes SA103F (i.e. the notes to the full supplement, not the short one).

Pages 6 and 7 of the notes should get you thinking about any other legitimate claim you may have.

silvercar

The fact that she has done the work free of charge upto now, should not be a reason to disallow her to be paid for the work going forwards.