Off setting expenses against tax

airhostess

My husband is self employed and will need to fill in a tax return before the deadline.

He has collected receipts for expenses incurred such as dentist, gym membership and travel costs (he is a model.)

However, I paid some of those costs for him on my credit and debit cards (they say my initial and surname on the card receipts.)
Can my husband still include those?
Or does he need to make sure that he pays all bills on his own card or with cash?

Is it possible to submit just the receipts themselves and not the credit card receipts, so it isn't possible to tell who actually paid?

If someone could point me in the right direction regarding this I'd be very grateful.

Pennywise

It doesn't matter how they are paid. You don't submit anything unless HMRC ask you to. You just put the figures on the tax return.

That said, I don't think some of the expenses you mention will be tax allowable anyway. He should be OK for the travel, but definitely not the gym membership and probably not the dentist - although some may be allowable if he had special cosmetic work solely for his self employment - i.e. specially required for a particular job - rather than the general work that anyone could have done.

Toothsmith

I think the rule is 'solely and exclusively'.

Dentistry is not 'solely and exclusively' required for any job. It has other uses as well - like eating!

The case that highlighted this was about 15 years ago when a barrister claimed for her black clothes that she wore in court against tax.

Her argument was that as it was a colour that did not suit her, she would wear these clothes nowhere else other than for her work.

The case was thrown out because the clothes - although she would not CHOOSE to wear them anywhere else- COULD be worn elsewhere, and so were not EXCLUSIVELY for her work.

So - the teeth would not be tax deductible, and not the gym either.

Travel costs from the home to work, and back to home are not deductible, but travel from one job to another job are.

(But I'm just a dentist not an accountant! These are things my accountant has told me over the years though.)

airhostess

Thanks so much for your reply!

The 'soley and exclusively' rule makes it tough for models. They can hardly take off their model head at the end of a days work and put their ugly old face back on!:rotfl:

But without the gym membership and with teeth falling out all over the place, my husband's work would dry up pretty fast.

Unfortunately for us, travel is always from home to casting or shoots. He goes to loads of castings, which involve travel into London, lots of these castings won't result in jobs though. My husband has never travelled from one job to another!

I remember reading somewhere a few years back about newsreaders offsetting (or trying to) cosmetic surgery expenses from their tax, and it made me wonder if my husband could claim for his (huge!!) dentist bill and gym membership.

airhostess

If anyone else is interested, I've found HMRC's rulings on this matter:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim31600.htm

Pennywise

airhostess wrote: »

If anyone else is interested, I've found HMRC's rulings on this matter:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim31600.htm

That's the wrong list - the one you've posted is from the employment income manual so relates only to employees.

You need to look at the business income manual which has different rules in a lot of areas - usually more beneficial!

airhostess

whoops - just noticed! Thanks for pointing that out.