Tax

sophie7286

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me... I am self employed, and work from home. Can i claim back a percentage of my mortgage, heating, internet ?

Thanks

Sophie

Caz3121

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/relief-household.htm

looks like it is £3 per week relief

agrinnall

Caz3121 wrote: »

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/relief-household.htm

looks like it is £3 per week relief

Ignore this, it appears to be for employees who work from home.

As a self employed worker you can indeed claim tax relief for a proportion of the type of costs you mention. This is from http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/worksheets/sa103f-notes.pdf which is linked to from this page http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/relief-self-emp.htm :

If you work from home or use a room in your home as an office you can only charge the business percentage of the costs of running your home (heat and light etc.) against tax.

I'm not sure what the formula for working out the percentage is but I'm sure someone will.

Pennywise

The HMRC guidance notes etc do not give a particularly generous view, but the reality is that claims can be a lot more generous. Have a look at their business income manual: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM47805.htm and in particular HMRC's own worked examples: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM47825.htm. As you can see, the claim as per HMRC's example 6 could amount to several hundred pounds per year for similar circumstances - far higher than the £3 per week they'd have you believe!

Johnhowell

Is it also true, that if you assign a portion of your home as an office your Council Tax may have to be recalcuated due to business rates?

Would this outweigh the gain in reduced income tax?

John