please help

diane118

hi please could some one help me to help my son inlaw he is a self employed roofer and has to travel to different sites within a 60 mile radus of his home can he claim back tax relief on the petrol he uses to get to different sites he works on and back home again. Thanks

chrismac1

Yes. He should keep his petrol chits. He should also keep any CIS statements he gets. With the petrol, if his van is 100% business use he should just claim all bills including road tax and insurance. If it is not 100% things get a little more complex - there are loads of threads on this site & others about this.

diane118

hi thanks for your reply just rang my daughter to tell her your reply, she said that she rang the tax help line today and that they told her that he cannot claim for his petrol to and from home to his work, are they wrong i dont know if she told them what job he does, does it make a difference.

chrismac1

It makes a big difference. Home to work travel is not claimable for an employee unless they are not at their "normal" place of work. In the case of self-employed folk, they are travelling to customers to carry out their trade, so the travel is classed as business travel and hence claimable - given that he can deem his "place of business" to be his house. if he was running a shop, for example, then travel from his house to the shop is non-business, but travel to for example a shop customer, trade fair, etc is business and hence claimable.

He's well advised to find a good, reasonably priced local accountant to sort out his books in his first year. If he's good at filing things and good with figures, he could then attempt a "DIY" effort in year 2 to save the fees. If I'm honest the majority of my building trades sub-contractor clients would probably make a right ricketts of things if they did their own returns, and end up with unwelcome interest from HMRC.

McKneff

If he is employed, of course he wouldnt be able to claim to and from work.

As a self employed man, he can.

The accountant will sort all this out for him at is year end.

Tell him to keep all receipts regarding his self emploment, as pointed out previously.
All filed nicely,

All incomings listed (with copy paperwork in date order)

All outgoings (with receipts filed in date order)

Any other expenses, filed with paperwork to prove it.

diane118

hi thanks for your help how does he deem his home as his place of business not sure what you mean

jimjames

diane118 wrote: »

hi thanks for your help how does he deem his home as his place of business not sure what you mean

As a photographer my home is my business address. If I travel to a wedding all mileage from home to the venue and back is classed as business mileage.

As is going to meet clients before the day so you need to keep careful records.

I assume if he is self employed he doesn't have a normal place of work so will travel to wherever his client needs him to be. Slightly different from someone self employed driving to their shop each day.