Help doing my self assessment

deanbwfc

Hi, i'm just looking for help doing my online self assessment before 31 Jan, got a few things i'm not sure about.....
I'm a self employed plumber and starting working self employed in May 2010, i've got all my inoices and receipts together and ready to do the tax return. First of all i bought a van in June 2010 (got the invoice) and basically my wealthy uncle paid for it and i pay him back £30 a week, how would i treat this on my return?
After looking through the HMRC notes i understand that i need to try and split how much i use the van for work and how much i use it for private, i would say as an estimate 70% work 30% private. The bigger issue is the mileage i've got all my petrol receipts but i'm not sure how many miles i did per job (i will note this down in future) so i do around 12,000 miles a year, is it acceptable to split the 12,000 miles by 70% and so claim 40p for 8,400 miles for work?
Mobile phone top ups, again i use most of these for work and 70% would be about right, do i claim 70% back as expenses?
The insurance on the van (£90 a month) do i count this as expenses to be claimed back in full?

Within the year i paid in £1,900 from a whip last claim from a couple of years ago, would i count this as income?

Thanks for your help

mrkbrrws

As long as your turnover is under £70,000 you can use the mileage rates to work out motor expenses. However, this includes all running costs including depreciation so you cannot include any other motor expenses in your Tax Return or claim anything for the original purchase of the van (except any interest payable on the loan).

If you haven't got exact figures all you can do is take your best estimate of business mileage.

Alternatively, you could add up all motor expenses and take 70% as your business expense. You can then claim capital allowances on the van purchase.

Mobile phone - yes, include in your expenses 70% of the topups in the year.

Sorry I don't understand your last question.

ceeforcat

If one bypasses the usual advice to pay someone to do this for you given the questions that you have asked, the answers are as follows:

van - claim the full cost as capital allowances but this should be apportioned as you only traded 11 months during tax year ended 5th April 2011 - I presume that you are making accounts up to then and not, for example, 30th April 2011. The repayments to your uncle are irrelevant unless he charges you interest and you can claim that while he must declare it.

I would agree with you mileage claim where it not for the initial question about the cost of the van. Simply, you claim either the actual costs of the purchase AND running the vehicle, repairs, diesel, etc or 40p per mile, not both. I agree the mobile phone suggestion.

You can claim 70% of your insurance quotation if not using the 40p per mile scenario.

Your claim is more than likely for compensation and is not taxable.

deanbwfc

Thanks for your replies! if i do claim the full actual costs this year rather than the mileage allowance will i have to do this each year from now on? I'd be much better off this year claiming the actual amounts but next year without the van purchase i'd be better off claiming with the mileage allowances, can you chnage it year or year to suit yourself?

jennifernil

No, you have to choose one way and stick with it till you change vehicle.