Claiming Petrol expenses

sharpey79gfc

Hi,

I am helping a friend out completing his tax return (self employed plumber) and his record keeping is shocking. I have shaken him up and going forward his is keeping a much better record.

He has receipts for petrol, but obviously he uses his car for personal use too. What would be an acceptable percentage to claim given that he has not kept a record of his mileage (the car is not on his books) in order to claim the 40p per mile allowance?

Thanks

interest_Ted

"How long is a piece of string" comes to mind.

It clearly depends on the chaps circumstances.

If he is a good, renowned, full time plumber then he most probably has a van with all his tools and spares, so his percentage will be in the upper end close to 100%. But I note that you speak of a car. If he's only using the car in which he takes the family out on Sunday's, takes the kids to school, has loads of friends who live far away etc, then I doubt if he will reach 15%. And if he's only doing plumbing in his spare time, it might be a lot less.

Whatever you/he come up with, he will have to be prepared to explain to the tax inspector, how he came up with the figures.

I am sure by now you will have told him to keep accurate records of his mileage, both personal and business. It's not difficult once you get into the habit. Its getting into the habit that seems to be difficult for most.

I believe the Revenue will accept an argument based on a shortened period. So for example you could use the figures from 3 months accurate figures and multiply by 4 to get the annual. I have never done this as I keep my own accurate records all the time, but I was advised at one point that the Revenue accept this sort of thing.

Ted