Sole Trader Mileage Reimbursement?

henrygregory

Hello there, I have today started work as a sole trader. I am working in UK schools as an IT Consultant. I have had a good number of interested schools and as such have picked up several annual contracts.
I am quite keen to establish what reimbursement or tax relief I can claim.
On average, I will be travelling 35 miles each way to my customers in my car. Is this something I can get some sort of tax relief for?
I will also need to purchase some equipment such as a printer, and small laptop computer to help run my business. Is there any help available for this.
Any help would be much appreciated.

WestonDave

You may benefit from some accounts advice more formally but in answer to your questions.


1. - Best thing to do is keep a record of all your car expenses, and a detailed log of business mileage (along with the annual start and finish milometer reading on your car). That way at the end of the financial year you will be able to establish (and evidence if HMRC ever asks) what the total mileage the car did in the year, what the total of business mileage was and therefore the proportion of total costs that related to business travel. As a sole trader the mileage rules work differently to your advantage as you can proportion it this way.


Equipment such as a laptop and printer would give rise to "capital allowances" - this is where the cost is apportioned over the expected useful life. So a £1000 laptop would not be deductible from income in the first year in full but some of it would according to the relevant rules at the time (which I'm out of date on!).


(Its unlikely there is any cash help to buy these items if that is what you are asking, but you will get a deduction from profits when calculating tax because of them - same with mileage - you can claim tax relief but no-one is going to pay you per mile unless of course your customers are as part of your charges!)