Sell assesment and expenses

rose28454

I am trying to help my son with his tax return. He is a journalist and for 3 months last year was self employed. He was paid gross from the 2 companies he worked for. We have done a spread sheet with all his income and just need to work out his expenses.
As far as I can see he can claim:- travel (Oyster card), Lunches, Mobile, Gas and electric costs. He worked a total of 90days for these companies including some weekend work from home. I understand he cant claim for rent, council tax or home phone. Just need some help working out what proportion he can claim. Any help anyone?

KiKi

I always use (for eg):

Gas & Elec costs
Divided by the number of rooms in my house (as I only used one room for work)
Divided by two (as I only worked during the day and not the night)

For mobile costs, I would select a sensible proportion to be honest. For me, it was about 50% of my calls, so 50% of mobile bills.

As long as he's sensible and can back up the claims with bills and receipts, whether it was 50% or 55% doesn't matter too much. It was only for three months, anyway.

HTH
KiKi

HappyMJ

I divide my gas/elec by 3.6 I turn off the remainder of the house and only heat one room when I am working so 100% of the usage for the 9 hours 20 mins that I am working is business related. I divide the phone/broadband by two. I don't claim anything for lunch. I claim 25% of the rent. I don't claim any of the council tax.

skater_kat

i don't think you can claim for lunch. i haven't got a ref for that though. anyone elsE?

KiKi

You can claim up to £5 per day subsistence, I think.

rose28454

Many thanks. Tax return now done. He has receipts for all that he claimed and he owed £616.75 of which £600.00 he has in an ISA ready for this. He is going to transfer that tommorow and pay online. Most of what he owed was actually Student Loan deductions that one of his employers failed to deduct. Many thanks all. The power of MSE again!!

Notmyrealname

KiKi wrote: »

I always use (for eg):

Gas & Elec costs
Divided by the number of rooms in my house (as I only used one room for work)
Divided by two (as I only worked during the day and not the night)

i

You can only do that if you use the room solely for work. If it is used for other purposes, i.e you use your living room, then you can only claim a flat rate of £3 per day.

skater_kat

think it is £3 per week

Mudd14

It is £3 per week

VfM4meplse

skater_kat wrote: »

i don't think you can claim for lunch. i haven't got a ref for that though. anyone elsE?

Lunches? Definitely not!

rose28454 wrote: »

Many thanks. Tax return now done. He has receipts for all that he claimed and he owed £616.75 of which £600.00 he has in an ISA ready for this. He is going to transfer that tommorow and pay online

I think it's a real pity, he'll lose the wrapper if it's from a previous year. I would rather skip lunch and save £600 in the process.

Laika7

Notmyrealname wrote: »

You can only do that if you use the room solely for work. If it is used for other purposes, i.e you use your living room, then you can only claim a flat rate of £3 per day.

KiKi wrote: »

Divided by two (as I only worked during the day and not the night)

I was under the impression it's ok to apportion your costs per room and time when it is being used exclusively for work. As it sounds is the case for KiKi. (Which she has divided by 2 as she uses it for work 50% of the time).


Below is the example provided by HMRC
- hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/bim47825.htm

Example 6
Gordon, an architect, dedicates a room solely for use as his office between 9am and 5pm daily. The room contains a workstation, office furniture and storage for his drawings. He uses the room for an average of 4 hours each day, though often this is spread over his working 8 hour day as he has a number of regular site visits to make. In addition it is not uncommon for Gordon to accommodate clients in his office to discuss plans, outside of normal hours.

The room is available for domestic use outside of business hours and his family regularly make use of the room for around 2 hours each evening.

After apportioning costs by reference to the number of rooms in the house, Gordon calculates the room uses £300 of variable costs (electric and oil) and £600 of fixed costs (council tax, mortgage interest, insurance). In apportioning these costs by time Gordon claims £680 in total, made up of 4/6 of variable costs (£200) and 8/10 of fixed costs (£480).

The claim equates to 75% of the total costs attributable to the room (£680/£900), which Gordon views as a more straightforward but equally reasonable basis for future claims, should his circumstances remain unchanged.