What tax relief can I claim for as self employed

mygeorgie

Hi,
Any tax savvy peeps out there?

I am self employed, I do my own books and use an accountant for my tax returns & accounts.

What I'd like to know is, is there an easy guide to what i am entitled to clain for and what i can not. I'd just like an insight into self employed tax as i know people say a good acountant is worth their weight in gold but how do i know without changing if I have a good one?

fengirl_2

You cannot claim anything. You do however need to include all your business expenditure in your books so that they can be included in your annual acounts and so reduce your tax bill.
There is no definitive list of business outgoings because every business is different - you run your business in the way you see fit. You ask yourself - am I spending this in order to earn my profits and if the answer is yes, then you include it in your books. If you have a separate account for business, then you shouldnt miss anything.
Your accountant should have told you all this. He should also be advising you of the best way to present your book keeping and maintaining your records.
He should also be taking to you about tax free savings and pensions.

Pennywise

fengirl wrote: »

You ask yourself - am I spending this in order to earn my profits and if the answer is yes, then you include it in your books.

Agree with everything fengirl has said, but be careful about this bit which can lead people astray. There needs to be a cavaet that the spending has to be business related. I've seen several cases where people have misunderstood this logic. I've seen people try to claim nursery fees, medical bills, gym membership, hair-dos, make-up, clothing, even dentures and their weekly grocery shopping, on the grounds that "I couldn't earn my profits if I didn't spend it" - but such expenses are almost certainly personal and not allowable as business expenses. So fengirl's general advice is sound, but it has to have an exclusion for personal motive rather than business motive.

However, there's also another angle which is to claim a proportion of the costs for things you would buy anyway, i.e. home telephone, car, etc., but which you now use in the business aswell.

cavework

As its Xmas ..
you can spend up to £150 for yourself and one guest, also the same allowance is made for all employee,s plus the one guest each. This is for one company 'get together per year' and is a taxable allowance.
This does include VAT and you have to invite every employee.
Merry Christmas
xx

fengirl_2

It's actually a non taxable allowance, but it does not relate to self employed people.

tdlwebs

I found the free course offered by HM Revenue very informative. If you can spare the time, why not give them a call?

property.advert

When I had my first self employed position I found that running a Ltd Co.was far far better tax wise and so simple that you could do the accounts yourself. Running the Co. was about £20 a year filing, going VAT on one Co. was easy as well and I found the VAT people very helpful.

Whether you need an accountant whilst self employed will largely depend upon your book keeping skills. My advice is to get to grips with Excel if you don't already use it.

I find some people quite anal on things like this and others who won't claim this or that because they think it is wrong. Tax mitigation is to be applauded and legal.

cosyc

tdlwebs wrote: »

I found the free course offered by HM Revenue very informative. If you can spare the time, why not give them a call?

Have to agree look at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/bst/advice-team-events/work1.htm or 0845 603 2691
get all your info direct from the horse's mouth (or so to speak) and all for free!!!

If you do your own books you've already cracked the hard bit, the course gives you a workbook which includes - what you can claim for, easy tips to fill in your return and how much you need to put away each month to pay your expected bill.