Self assessment allowances/expenses. Claiming travel costs

m8skl

First time self assessment tax return

I am trying to work out what allowances/expenses I am allowed to claim for my tax return year 10/11.

I was self employed last year for 5 months. During this time I worked freelance of an Architectural practice in central London which I commuted by car/train and bike to each day I was in their office. My home was registered with HRMC as my companies (sole trader) address.

What would like to know is can I claim for my commuting to and from the Architectural office I was working for? I know there are rules regarding temporary & permanent place of work but I was only working at this site for the 5months and I have received conflicting opinions on this matter

If so I can claim this, I have another question. I had a yearly season ticket I brought before I went self employed and had been paying it off each month (credit card). Can I divide this by 12 and claim for the 5 months that was self employed as expenses on my return?

And finally are there any other allowances/expenses I can have. I know of the £3 a day allowance for using part of my home as a home office for tasks such as book keeping/job search/etc.

Many thanks

Jon

Elaine_Wilson

I'll work backwards through your post.

The £3 allowance for the use of your home is per week, not a daily rate. A higher figure may be claimed but you would be expected to justify it.

It is difficult to say what else you could claim for. If you tell us what expenses you have relating to the business we can say if they are allowable. Off the top of my head you may be incurring costs for -
professional indemnity insurance
professional subscription
training courses to keep you updated
professional reference books or magazines
office expenses such as stationery and postage

Back to the travelling. The important point is where is your business based? It may be registered at your home address but can you say it is actually run from there? From the way you described the situation I would say it is likely that you are really based at the offices of the practice you worked for. In this case the travelling would be equivalent to an employee's commuting and not allowable. But think about what you actually do at home. You haven't given much information so I could be wrong.

m8skl

Thank you for the reply. Realised once i had posted the message i said day as oppose to week.

Having heard what you have said I probably should be thinking more along the standard commuting employee line rather than the actual business travel side of things.

Thank you for your help.