are these accurate calculations?

dori2o

fengirl wrote: »

OK, thanks for the capital allowances answer, thats fine.
Yes, you need to include the radio and depot fees.
There is no 'usual' figure for private use of a vehicle. Your OH needs to keep a note of his business mileage over a period of a couple of months and use that proportion for the accounts. In actual fact you should really include all the vehicle running costs in your accounts and then add back the private proportion in his self assessment - accounts which do not show a private proportion on self assessments are a risk factor in selection for investigation.

Whilst this may be true for those self employed individuals with a turnover in excess of £68000, those with income below can complete the Self Employed short form which does not ask for a breakdown of expenses just the total, or show total expenses in box 30 of the Self Emplyed full form, or if completing online would only do the 3 line calculation.

Whilst it is always agood idea for those earning over the VAT limit to show both allowable and disallowable expenses, in this instance there is no problem, and has no bearing on the likelyhood of being selected for an enquiry.

Also, if they were selected, assuming they have the evidence required to show where the figures have come from,they have nothing to worry about.

I really do believe that comments such as that highlighted cause more harm than good to people already worried about completing a return for the first time.

joanne_d_3

zygurat789 wrote: »

In your circumstances, as descibed above, 25% may be too high a proportion for private use.
You should keep a log of all use, be it business or private, then the actual proportion of business to private can be ascertained. Ie business

Hi and thanks for the response.

I will be totally honest with you.....both myself and my husband KNOW that we will not be using the car for personal use ANY WHERE near 25% BUT in saying that , we are trying our very best to be "model tax payers" we just soooo wantto abide by the "norm".

Its important to everyone to stay on the right side of HMRC but i just feel that what with hubby and his ex employer and the ongoing employment tribunal ....well you know....

Some people (not on here but other taxi drivers known to us) have been telling us that if we attempt to claim for anything over 50/50 ratio we are just opening ourselves up to HMRC investigating us.... We KNOW for a fact that even if they did they wouldnt find ANYTHING un-toward but in saying that , we have the ongoing tribunal , 3 little kiddies , one of whom is disabled , learning the ropes of self employment , moneys not excellent at the min and to top it all off my poor mums just recovering from breast cancer...so to say that an un-necessary investigation by HMRC is the LAST thing we need at the min is probably the understatement of the century ! lol.


For now , 25% personal use will be ok . Our first year earnings probably wont be much over £15k and with expenses of around maybe 7k we wont be paying much tax anyhow so shouldnt worry.

joanne_d_3

dori2o wrote: »

Whilst this may be true for those self employed individuals with a turnover in excess of £68000, those with income below can complete the Self Employed short form which does not ask for a breakdown of expenses just the total, or show total expenses in box 30 of the Self Emplyed full form, or if completing online would only do the 3 line calculation.

Whilst it is always agood idea for those earning over the VAT limit to show both allowable and disallowable expenses, in this instance there is no problem, and has no bearing on the likelyhood of being selected for an enquiry.

Also, if they were selected, assuming they have the evidence required to show where the figures have come from,they have nothing to worry about.

I really do believe that comments such as that highlighted cause more harm than good to people already worried about completing a return for the first time.

Hi dorio2o , i do believe that you were another one of the posters who have been a massive help to me over the past few days with my tax worries.

Now that you mention it , i think i do remember another poster telling me that if our income was below a certain amount then we would only need to record our "total expenses" figure.

We have kept receipts for absolutely EVERYTHING!

We have spoke to some people who tell us to have the taxi valeted weekly but my husband wont hear of it lol , he still gets out with his bucket and sponge lol . He did however record the sponge and car shampoo as an expense lol.

joanne_d_3

fengirl wrote: »

Oh yes, any dual carrigeway in fact. Havn't always been like that - just in the past 20 yrs. I can drive to my nearest station and from then on I let the train take the strain.

Fengirl , i remember when i first passed my test , it was around 10 years ago now . I also was terrified of the motorway.....eventually i decided i was going to be brave and give it a go....after about 2 miles or so i see the blue flashing lights come up beside me and the police pulled me over...i assumed it was because i was speeding.....NOPE....they had pulled me over to tell me that i was going TOO SLOW lol

Doesnt bother me now though...i whip up and down the motorway without a second thought.

dori2o

joanne_d wrote: »

Hi dorio2o , i do believe that you were another one of the posters who have been a massive help to me over the past few days with my tax worries.

Now that you mention it , i think i do remember another poster telling me that if our income was below a certain amount then we would only need to record our "total expenses" figure.

We have kept receipts for absolutely EVERYTHING!

We have spoke to some people who tell us to have the taxi valeted weekly but my husband wont hear of it lol , he still gets out with his bucket and sponge lol . He did however record the sponge and car shampoo as an expense lol.

every little helps

joanne_d_3

I have had a car which I claimed 100% business use, I was never challenged but at the time we had three small children and child seats had to be screwed into the car so whenever we went anywhere as a family we used my OH's estate which was the family car.[/QUOTE]


Hi , the same goes for us , if we are going any where it would usually be ME driving MY car , we now class this car as our "family car" and my hubbys car as "the taxi".

zygurat789

joanne_d wrote: »

Hi and thanks for the response.

I will be totally honest with you.....both myself and my husband KNOW that we will not be using the car for personal use ANY WHERE near 25% BUT in saying that , we are trying our very best to be "model tax payers" we just soooo wantto abide by the "norm".

Its important to everyone to stay on the right side of HMRC but i just feel that what with hubby and his ex employer and the ongoing employment tribunal ....well you know....

Some people (not on here but other taxi drivers known to us) have been telling us that if we attempt to claim for anything over 50/50 ratio we are just opening ourselves up to HMRC investigating us.... We KNOW for a fact that even if they did they wouldnt find ANYTHING un-toward but in saying that , we have the ongoing tribunal , 3 little kiddies , one of whom is disabled , learning the ropes of self employment , moneys not excellent at the min and to top it all off my poor mums just recovering from breast cancer...so to say that an un-necessary investigation by HMRC is the LAST thing we need at the min is probably the understatement of the century ! lol.


For now , 25% personal use will be ok . Our first year earnings probably wont be much over £15k and with expenses of around maybe 7k we wont be paying much tax anyhow so shouldnt worry.

1. You have been told by others on this site from both HMRC and the accouinting profession that there is no norm and if you voluntarily overpay your tax you are not in keeping with the ethics of this site:)
2. They are nothing to do with HMRC and nobody has ever suggested that you do anything wrong.
3. This is pub talk HMRC have said that they only do an investigation if they have reason to. I knew a taxi driver who only purchased petrol in amounts of less than £10 he then put a one in front of every one before submitting them to his acciountant. This would have given rise to an investigation immediately, even a junior clerk would have seen through this. Dion't be afraid to explain exactly how tyou arrived at your private use and don't forget to mention your own, family car.
I claimed 100% of my car when we had 3 young children and car seats had to be screwed into the car and changing them took all afternoon because they were in myOH's family estate. I was never even challenged about it.
It's exactly like driving too slow on the motorway

ceeforcat

Hi - Joanne - I know that you asked me a question on the previous thread but will continue on this one if that is O.K.

Firstly you have stated :

I will be totally honest with you.....both myself and my husband KNOW that we will not be using the car for personal use ANY WHERE near 25% BUT in saying that , we are trying our very best to be "model tax payers" we just soooo wantto abide by the "norm".

If you do not use the taxi 25% privately - your claim is wrong just as if you had claimed too much. The norm for a taxi where there is another car is used privately would be at least 85%. Ignore the other taxi drivers - total nonsense. Do they have the kind of knowledge that fengirl or zygurat 789 have in this area? (the latters post above is 100% accurate)

On the tribunal front (on the other thread), your husband should be represented. The threats used by his former employer can be used against them. Tribunals are heavily weighted against employers - ensure all of his grievances are clearly stated before discovery - just one upheld leaves the employer liable.

Remember - it is not a formal court - your husband's former emplyer stands to lose a lot more than your husband.

joanne_d_3

zygurat789 wrote: »

1. You have been told by others on this site from both HMRC and the accouinting profession that there is no norm and if you voluntarily overpay your tax you are not in keeping with the ethics of this site:)
2. They are nothing to do with HMRC and nobody has ever suggested that you do anything wrong.
3. This is pub talk HMRC have said that they only do an investigation if they have reason to. I knew a taxi driver who only purchased petrol in amounts of less than £10 he then put a one in front of every one before submitting them to his acciountant. This would have given rise to an investigation immediately, even a junior clerk would have seen through this. Dion't be afraid to explain exactly how tyou arrived at your private use and don't forget to mention your own, family car.
I claimed 100% of my car when we had 3 young children and car seats had to be screwed into the car and changing them took all afternoon because they were in myOH's family estate. I was never even challenged about it.
It's exactly like driving too slow on the motorway

Thank you so much to you for this post , i read it and then read it over again . It makes a lot of sense and jas given me lots to think about.

Just to appear totally dense lol , you say that i shouldnt be afraid to expalin exactly how i arrived at my private use figure...who do you mean i should explain this to when the time comes ?

You also tell me to mention my own family car , is there somewhere on the self assessment form that you put information?

thanks again

joanne

joanne_d_3

ceeforcat wrote: »

Hi - Joanne - I know that you asked me a question on the previous thread but will continue on this one if that is O.K.

Firstly you have stated :

I will be totally honest with you.....both myself and my husband KNOW that we will not be using the car for personal use ANY WHERE near 25% BUT in saying that , we are trying our very best to be "model tax payers" we just soooo wantto abide by the "norm".

If you do not use the taxi 25% privately - your claim is wrong just as if you had claimed too much. The norm for a taxi where there is another car is used privately would be at least 85%. Ignore the other taxi drivers - total nonsense. Do they have the kind of knowledge that fengirl or zygurat 789 have in this area? (the latters post above is 100% accurate)

On the tribunal front (on the other thread), your husband should be represented. The threats used by his former employer can be used against them. Tribunals are heavily weighted against employers - ensure all of his grievances are clearly stated before discovery - just one upheld leaves the employer liable.

Remember - it is not a formal court - your husband's former emplyer stands to lose a lot more than your husband.

Hi Ceeforcat , you are another of the people who has gone out of their way lately to help me . I cant thank you all enough.

i see exactly what you mean when you say that claiming 25% personal use is just as bad as claiming too much as in ITS INNACURATE INFORMATION!

Point taken , thank you.

I also agree that the people on this site have expert knowledge and for sharing that knowledge with the likes of me they will never know just how greatful i am.

Now...to the tribunal....ughhh i shudder every time i have to think what they have put my poor hubby through!

Unfortuanetly we have no legal representation , we just cant afford legal fee's and we have no cover on any household insurance policies so its just us against them im afraid.

The threat they have made to us about reporting us to HMRC was made verbally so unfortunately we would be unable to prove they said it.

But hey.....if (when) they do go to HMRC with their "tip off" , it will be THEM wasting both tax payers money and HMRC's time !

Joanne