Heating and lighting expenses for working from home - self employed

puddy

Can anyone help me with this. This is my second tax return as a self employed and last year I completed it using £3 per week for use of home, which I thought was the standard amount

I thought I saw on here recently some people talking about taking a percentage of their heating/lighting bills as expenses?

Is this right. I use the study as my office and obviously use electricity, heating and my internet connection/phone. Do you use the £3 per week for this or take a bigger percentage of bills, say 25% as our study is one of our 3 bedrooms and its obviously only for the day time? And if so, is it that percentage of the entire years bill?

Thanks

antrobus

Depends on what you mean by 'self-employed'.

Some people are effectively self-employed but are obliged to trade through a limited company which pays them a salary. As employees taxed under PAYE they are subject to the '£3 per week' limit which HMRC has imposed. (You can claim more but it has to be justifiable.) However if you are self-employed in the sense that you are a sole trader then that limit does not apply, and (generally speaking) claims are normally based on x% of this and y% of that.

puddy

I work by myself, I dont have a company or limited company. Im not sure what is meant by sole trader as Im not a trader. I do assessments for different employers, send them an invoice and they pay me. I work at home.

However a small portion (about a third) of my income this year has come from an employer as PAYE. This still involves working from home, I dont have an office or a base as Im a sessional worker

antrobus

puddy wrote: »

I work by myself, I dont have a company or limited company. Im not sure what is meant by sole trader as Im not a trader. I do assessments for different employers, send them an invoice and they pay me. I work at home.

Then you'd be a sole trader, as in trading as a business on your own account. So the £3 limit doesn't apply, so yes you can claim back a perentage of this and that as 'Business Use of Home'.

puddy wrote: »

However a small portion (about a third) of my income this year has come from an employer as PAYE. This still involves working from home, I dont have an office or a base as Im a sessional worker

That would be relevant as it would reduce the percentage you could (or should) reclaim.

puddy

is it easier to just claim £3 per week?

Im reading on the internet about proportions of heating and lighting, phone and internet, plus council tax and mortgage interest. i have no idea what the mortgage interest is, plus we changed internet/phone provider halfway through the year because we couldnt make head nor tail of BTs bills, so the chances of me being able to justify a proportion, let alone work it out is slim

antrobus

Yes, it's easier to claim £3 per week. HMRC are never likely to query that level of claim.

I would guess that you could probably 'get away with' claiming more. But it is a question of whether the effort of collating the info is worth it in terms of the tax saving.

puddy

antrobus wrote: »

Yes, it's easier to claim £3 per week. HMRC are never likely to query that level of claim.

I would guess that you could probably 'get away with' claiming more. But it is a question of whether the effort of collating the info is worth it in terms of the tax saving.

no, it really isnt. i have a headache as it is!