The Mystery Shopping thread - VIII

johnny_c-l

........from the OP:

There are some other things you can claim for though - these are more indirect costs and things you would have paid for even without MSing in most cases. These are simply contributions your business is making to you, for providing certain things. Below are some examples:

• Broadband - you can claim a % of your monthly cost against your income. For example, if you estimate that you use your internet 25% of the time for MSing, then claim 25% of your broadband costs against your income
• Telephone - this is done in a similar way to broadband. Line rental is done similar to broadband; calls are done either on this basis if you can't easily work it out, or using the exact costs if you can.
• Use of home - this is something most small businesses charge against their income. It's a bit of a notional amount (usually set at £5/£10 per month) that's supposed to contribute towards the costs of keeping your business running at home, using the heat, light and a bit of the spare room as an office!

The last one is definitely a guestimate one - it goes along the lines of using your common sense and making educated guesses. More info is available here from HMRC on allowable "other" expenses....

IlonaRN

johnny_c-l wrote: »

Not sure where £3 came from but AFAIK you can claim reasonable costs assosciated with running your business. If, say, you use your spare room as an office for MS work then you coud claim an approriate proportion of your heating & electricity costs for that purpose. Same goes for the internet; if you used, say, 50% of your internet time for MS work then it may be fair to claim 50% of your internet bill as an expense.

This was the discussion a few pages back. If I can claim internet bills, and I do now use the internet far more for MS than for anything else, then even if I claim 1/2 my internet bill and line rental, I'll be much better off than the £3 per week suggested at the time.

Edit: Aah, the £3 per week is use of home, the telephone and internet come on top Yay

skywalker83

i have a one bed flat and pay £300 pw as rent. how much do you think i can put as rent of MS work?

angel13

johnny_c-l wrote: »

Not sure where £3 came from but AFAIK you can claim reasonable costs assosciated with running your business. If, say, you use your spare room as an office for MS work then you coud claim an approriate proportion of your heating & electricity costs for that purpose. Same goes for the internet; if you used, say, 50% of your internet time for MS work then it may be fair to claim 50% of your internet bill as an expense.

I posted the £3 as it comes from HMRC site as the amount you can put in your books as use of home.

angel13

pinkprincess39 wrote: »

Hi
quick question please.
I read a few posts back that you can claim £3 per week as household expenses on your tax return. So does that mean for may I can put down £13.28 (i.e £3.00 divided by 7 times 31days)

thanks

I do my books by financial year so for every working week I put use of home £3 as an expense - same for percentage of internet and phone bill (I am calculating how much this is from my bills)

angel13

skywalker83 wrote: »

i have a one bed flat and pay £300 pw as rent. how much do you think i can put as rent of MS work?

£3 a week same as rest of us as thats what HMRC states is acceptable amount. My rent is loads more than yours but we are just using a desk in a corner of a room. I put the link to it when I intitially posted it as its more than the figure mentioned on the front page and it is what I am now using as must be accurate as its their advice.

angel13

IlonaRN wrote: »

I would have thought it was easier to do it for a whole year at a time, since you only need to do a tax return once a year? One year = 52 weeks, so £156 for the year?

If some of us are on benefits (like I am) you will probably need to show your books (ie lack of income) to someone or other every single month or even week so I am doing mine per month. Still think they will think Ive got money that I havent :rolleyes:

pinkprincess39

angel13 wrote: »

I do my books by financial year so for every working week I put use of home £3 as an expense - same for percentage of internet and phone bill (I am calculating how much this is from my bills)

thanks for everyones help!

What % do people use for broadband and phones expenses? Im pretty much at my pc all day either filling in assigment forms or looking for jobs:p
Ive not done housework properly now since I started this a month ago:D
I thought i would maybe do 2 or 3 jobs a month - ive done 24 this month and have 14 booked for june:eek:. I think im obsessed...and all for measly pay:cool:

kitchpoo

Is anyone else running themselves as a Limited Company rather than PAYE?

angel13

kitchpoo wrote: »

Is anyone else running themselves as a Limited Company rather than PAYE?

How would that be possible/viable unless you already run your own Ltd Business???? I am doing ms to save up the funds I need for stock to run own online business from home but I will still be trading as small business only and not Ltd.

Also bear in mind many tenancies and mortgages have stipulations about running business from home. My tenancy states I cannot do this but as I do freelance work at the pc (as well as this and my new business will be IT based as well) fingers crossed we will be ok as we have nowhere else to move to and nowhere else for me to work from. If I was back home I have family who run own businesses so I could just hijack part of their office space - and as its family id get charged :rotfl::rotfl: