Can I put decorating work against my tax bill?

murkins

I'm a freelance writer operating as a sole trader for some clients and also under an umbrella company for other clients.

I work from home. I recently had some plastering work done on a wall in my house as well as some painting.

I have receipts for materials and labour with the total bill amounting to under £800.

Can this be put against my self assessment tax return?

(Pre-emptive: Yes, of course I'll talk to my accountant but in the meantime, any advice or thoughts would be welcome)

zygurat789

murkins wrote: »

I'm a freelance writer operating as a sole trader for some clients and also under an umbrella company for other clients.

I work from home. I recently had some plastering work done on a wall in my house as well as some painting.

I have receipts for materials and labour with the total bill amounting to under £800.

Can this be put against my self assessment tax return?

(Pre-emptive: Yes, of course I'll talk to my accountant but in the meantime, any advice or thoughts would be welcome)

I take it that if this work had been done in your writing room you would have said so. So what makes you think that this expenditure has anything to do with your business?

McKneff

I would have thought very probably not....

murkins

zygurat789 wrote: »

I take it that if this work had been done in your writing room you would have said so. So what makes you think that this expenditure has anything to do with your business?

I have been working from my living room which is not very conducive to writing. This spare room has always been a junk room and we never decorated it. However, now that it is becoming my office I thought that having it decorated would make it feel more like an office and be more professional, especially as I sometimes have to make videoconference calls with clients.

I've also purchased a desk and didn't mention that in my post either but only because I know this can be claimed as an expense. I understand there are plenty of people out there who would like to 'put one over' on HMRC but I'm not one of them, quite frankly I could do without all the hassle and I firmly believe that doing so would be just one more complication in my life that I really don't need. Would I rather pay what I owe and just get on with it or defraud HMRC and always be looking over my shoulder worrying about it? Easy choice for me, I've never been one for law-breaking.

So can you actually help at all or are you just questioning my integrity? I'm quite new to this freelance lark. I set up in late 2012 as a small-time, on-the-side venture. Now I've made the leap to it being my full-time livelihood. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

EDIT: Incidentally, I also purchased a laptop and backup drive for this work but won't be claiming those as expenses because I also use the laptop for leisure surfing and the hard drive for storing my music and family photos. I'm not a tax cheat.

Suarez

You may get away with a bit of paint for the room you are using for your freelance work but as for the plastering - no chance.

You can claim capital allowances on the business use % of the laptop under AIA. This will help reduce the tax bill.

Savvy_Sue

I don't think anyone's suggesting you are a tax cheat: take the question at face value. Expenses claimed for self-employment need to have some link to your work, I think it's the 'wholly, necessarily, exclusively' test which you seem to have some understanding of.

On that basis you could claim some of the laptop and hard drive, I believe.

purdyoaten

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I don't think anyone's suggesting you are a tax cheat: take the question at face value. Expenses claimed for self-employment need to have some link to your work, I think it's the 'wholly, necessarily, exclusively' test which you seem to have some understanding of.

On that basis you could claim some of the laptop and hard drive, I believe.

The necessarily part of that test is more appropriate to employees.

IronWolf

You cant claim a desk as an expense, it is capital expenditure and needs to be depreciated over time. The same will likely need to happen for decoration of your office.

You can also claim a % of your laptop as a business capital expenditure, based on what % of its use you use for business.

If your office is solely used for work and was uninhabitable before then you may be able to class it as business expenditure, but check with you accountant.