Is it my working expenses plan resonable?

daxu

Hi,
I did some part time work for a small company as self employed contractor. Basically I developed some software for them and by now they paid me 3600£ and I should expect another 1800£ from them.

To do the job for them, I did weekend and evening works from home.
I listed my expenses as below:

1. a laptop I bought last Xmas. (I am thinking of deducting the whole value of the laptop although I bought the laptop before I register myself as self employed).
2. 50% of Broadband fee (I use the broadband to looking for solutions, asking questions related to the work etc). In day time I work for another software company so I do not use my broadband at all during day time. I think I can justify that at least 50% time I spent on broadband is for the work.
3. 10% fees for electricity, water and heating. (Reason: as I need to work late, my bills will be higher.)
4. train tickets to see the customer.

Is this plan reasonable or did I miss something I can claim? As I am not realy earning a lot from my self employed job, I don't want to hire an account (although someone only charge 48£ to do it for me, but I guess I won't gain a lot by hiring them, as they will not try very hard to save my tax bill).

tax_man_06

I'm presuming that this income is from the past couple of tax years, if so:

1) You cannot claim 100% cost for a computer. It will be classed as a capital expense. You can claim 40% of the cost in the first year (first year allowance), however, if this is your first year and your accounts are for less than 12 months, then you can only claim the proportion of the number of months you aere trading. i.e. accounting dates August 2005 to April 2006 = 8 months, therefore you can claim: cost X 40% x 8/12.

2) Broadband cost, whatever the proportion is for your business/personal use

3) Claiming cost of home use: This can be claimed only, if you use one room in your property as an office, in which case you would claim a proportion of the bills for gas/electric etc. i.e. count the number of rooms in your house, excluding bathroom, kitchen and hallways/vestibules and divide 100 by the numner of rooms, this gives you the percentage of the bills you can claim. Again, you can only claim for the length of your accounting period.

If you do not use 1 room specifically as an office, then you can claim as above, and then work out the percentage the room is used for business/personal use.

4) No problems.

daxu

Thanks tax man.

How about the money for some certificates I gained before I started as self employed? These certificates are used to persuade the company that I can do the job, so I think it is a vital part in carry out my business. Can I claim anything?

Many Thanks

tax_man_06

daxu wrote:

Thanks tax man.

How about the money for some certificates I gained before I started as self employed? These certificates are used to persuade the company that I can do the job, so I think it is a vital part in carry out my business. Can I claim anything?

Many Thanks

Hi,

Unfortunately you cannot claim for a qualification you gained in order to get a job/contract. However, if this qualification needs to be updated every so often, i.e. you have to take an exam to keep the qualification, then any fees you incurr by having to attend the follow ups is claimable in full.

Also, if you have to subscribe to any professional bodies, then this is also a claimable expense.