Should I claim expenses this year

concreterpaul

i have only earnt £3000 this year. should i claim my expenses this yr as i will get all my tax back that i have paid. this is due to just arriving in the country. i am cis self employed. can i claim my expenses next year.

Elaine_Wilson

If you know that there will be no tax due for the year then you needn't claim expenses in the return. If it were me I would put a note to explain this on the return as the next year's on may be flagged up because of the sudden appearance of expenses.

You can not claim the normal trading expenses for one year in the next.

A couple of things you might do. First if you have any capital expenditure then you do not need to claim capital allowances but can carry the cost forward when writing down allowance will be available.

The other approach depends on the pattern of your earnings. You could have an accounting year different to the tax year. Say you started on 1st January then the first accounts could go to the end of December. The first tax return would now include 3/12ths of that year's profit. This could be more than the £3,000 less expenses you earned. The year end could be changed to the same as the tax year later. The only way to see if this would benefit you is to work through some figures.