Self Employment

philww40

I would like some advice about self employment. I work for a property company in London and live in Sussex. If i became self employed would i be able to claim my travel expences to and from London. I work in various locations around London looking after differant properties , carrying out repairs and general up keep of the buildings. Any comments greatly received.

Annisele

If you were genuinely self employed, then you'd likely be able to claim your travel expenses against tax. Effectively that means that you'd pay the expenses out of your pre-tax income, not out of your post-tax income.

But, if you keep working for the same company and doing the same thing, I think it would be difficult to persuade HMRC that you'd magically become self-employed and should be taxed according.

Can't you claim expenses from your employer?

Premier_2

philww40 wrote: »

I would like some advice about self employment. I work for a property company in London and live in Sussex. If i became self employed would i be able to claim my travel expences to and from London. I work in various locations around London looking after differant properties , carrying out repairs and general up keep of the buildings. Any comments greatly received.

If you were genuinely self employed, you would usually be able to claim travelling expenses.

However, you cannnot usually claim travelling expenses for commuting to a permanent place of work (even if you are self employed there)

A permanent place of work is usually a single location, but may be locations within close proximity, e.g. Central London.
But if one is Wembley and the other in East Ham, that is not a single location.

Similary as an employee, the employer would not usually pay commuting costs (and if he does it won't be tax free) but should usually pay to travel from one site to the next. Depending on specific circumstances, that may sometimes include travel from home.

Check HMRC website for more details, or just give them a call .

McKneff

If youre self employed you claim the tax element of expenses not the expenses themselves.

steve1980

Don't forget, self employed means no rights, no benefits and a delay in getting paid your invoices (circa 30 days) Also, you would need to be able to show that you are able to take work elsewhere if offered.