S/E-Fuel claim?

easyhome

Hello All,

I am confusing myself with my Tax return and would be grateful for some advice, I work in the construction industry and have been paid through CIS since the beginning of November last year.
I use my own car for work and personal use and I reckon I probably use it about 80-85% work and 15-20% personal, for the purposes of self assessment I am going to call it a 80/20 split.
I understand I can claim for the work % of the vehicles running costs, ie I could claim for £160 of a £200 service and the same for tyres and the insurance, I also have just over £2k worth of fuel receipts.
This works out to about 20,500m and I know I can claim 25ppm for this (which I have worked out at just over £5k) but my main query is, if I claim for the 25ppm can I still claim separately for the 80% of my servicing etc or is the 25ppm an all inclusive thing.
I’d already used up my 10k miles at 40p before I started with the CIS
Hope this makes sense,
James

fengirl_2

No, you are mixing up the two systems.
You can either:
1. claim the business proportion of all the vehicle running costs - from servicing to fuel, to insurance and tax, plus capital allowances, or
2. 40p pm for the first 10,000 miles and 25p pm thereafter - this is designed to cover all the running costs of the car, so you cannot claim any other running costs, including capital allowances.
Your self employment is counted separately for the purposes of the 10,000 miles, so you start again counting your miles from day one of self employment, should you decide to go for this method.
You have to use method 1 if you are VAt registered.
If you use method 1, you include all your running costs in your accounts and then add back the private use (20% in your case) in the collumn provided.

lisa76

Hi Fengirl, where does it say that if you are VAT registered you have to use method 1? I'm not doubting your expertise, as your knowledge is valuable, but as I'm only a few months into my business I would like to get the fuel bit sorted nice and early. When I went on the Inland Revenue self employed lecture they said I could decide at the end of the year - but that was before I decided to register for VAT.
Thanks

fengirl_2

Its not quite as I put it above. If you are using the mileage method to start with and then you go above the VAT threshld, you can continue to use the mileage method throughout the life of that vehicle. When you buy a new vehicle and are still over the VAT threshold, then you have to use the actual costs method.
Once you change from the mielage method to the actual method, you have to stick to it.

easyhome

thanks fengirl,

I thought it sounded to good to be true, although at least I can claim for the 10k at 40ppm.

cheers

james

EarlyRiser

Can anyone help with this which I need to put on Self assessment form soon, if applicable. When made redundant from my job I purchased the Company Car. I am now self employed and the car is used 99% for my work. I keep all mileage records and know I can claim for petrol. Can I claim the money I spent to buy the car?, insurance etc. This self employment and what you can claim is a big learning curve. Hopefully somebody out there has an answer. Thanks in advance