income vat tax confusion / help needed

Dan1066

Hi everyone,

I need to get some answers to i scenario i have. I've a feeling i should be owed or able to claim some moneys back to me, this is my life lol;

Im employed i earn £68,000 total income for the year, made up of two things,
Basic wage =£38,000 and a expense allowance=£30,000,
I pay higher rate tax (40%), both these figures are before tax.


I work 350 miles from home 2week/2week shift pattern.
I have a mortgage on my 'home' but rent another (shared) house / room for work purposes.

I travel in my own car for all work approx 1200 miles a month
and all maintenance for that car is payed for by me.
( I rarely use my car when im off shift at home )

I feed and water myself / family in both properties home & away
My partner does not work (stay at home mum, but returning to work soon? i hope lol)

I am 33 years old
Ive two wonderful children 8 and 5 yrs both in school.
I'm home with my family just 50% of the year.

So the way i see this is i cover a huge amount of outgoings, 50% work related, i pay higher tax, use my car a lot, we claim nothing from the goverment, now im happy with my life but think perhaps i could claw something back into my pockets for change haha,

I should say at this point i keep 99% (odd ones get lost in washer)of my reciepts and tally it all up on an excel spread sheet, month to month.

thanks in advance for all comments hints and tips on this, hope it doesnt confuse you as much as me

Daniel.

trailingspouse

The title of your OP mentions VAT.

You can only claim VAT back if you are registered for VAT - and you would only register for VAT if you were running your own business. If this were the case you would also be charging VAT on your invoices, but from what I can gather you are in a 'proper' job and get paid through PAYE.

So no joy there I'm afraid.

zygurat789

trailingspouse wrote: »

The title of your OP mentions VAT.

You can only claim VAT back if you are registered for VAT - and you would only register for VAT if you were running your own business. If this were the case you would also be charging VAT on your invoices, but from what I can gather you are in a 'proper' job and get paid through PAYE.

So no joy there I'm afraid.

However, if you have an allowable expence of (say) £100 from a VATable trader he will invoice you for £120, all of this £120, because you are not VAT registered, is your expence and you can claim it all against income tax.

agrinnall

Why are you paying higher rate tax? Your salary is below the threshold assuming a standard tax code, and the expenses payments should not be taxed at all if they are claimed for expenses actually incurred.

zygurat789

blondebubbles wrote: »

Generally speaking you cannot get any deductions from your home to your permanent workplace as this is ordinary commuting.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim32055.htm

You do make it sound as if you choose to live so far from your place of work and your employer is doing you a favour with your shift pattern and expences. Is this the case or does your employer insist you live where you do?

TheCyclingProgrammer

agrinnall wrote: »

Why are you paying higher rate tax? Your salary is below the threshold assuming a standard tax code, and the expenses payments should not be taxed at all if they are claimed for expenses actually incurred.

A flat rate "expenses allowance" is taxable pay by another name really. There are certain expenses that are completely exempt from tax and wouldn't appear on your P11D and others that do appear on your P11D that require the employee to make a claim for business expenses to avoid being tax. There are also certain types of expenses that allow approved flat or scale rate payments. But a general "here's £x a month to cover your expenses" is generally speaking going to be taxable as normal income.

That's not to say there isn't anything OP can't claim tax relief on but they would have to outline what hey spend their allowance on to answer that question.

agrinnall

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

A flat rate "expenses allowance" is taxable pay by another name really. There are certain expenses that are completely exempt from tax and wouldn't appear on your P11D and others that do appear on your P11D that require the employee to make a claim for business expenses to avoid being tax. There are also certain types of expenses that allow approved flat or scale rate payments. But a general "here's £x a month to cover your expenses" is generally speaking going to be taxable as normal income.

That's not to say there isn't anything OP can't claim tax relief on but they would have to outline what hey spend their allowance on to answer that question.

But the OP says "I should say at this point i keep 99% (odd ones get lost in washer)of my reciepts and tally it all up on an excel spread sheet, month to month" which sounds to me like that 99% is all allowable expenses.

TheCyclingProgrammer

agrinnall wrote: »

But the OP says "I should say at this point i keep 99% (odd ones get lost in washer)of my reciepts and tally it all up on an excel spread sheet, month to month" which sounds to me like that 99% is all allowable expenses.

But OP also explicitly says a £30k allowance which sounds like a fixed sum to me.

Receipts don't mean much if the expense incurred is not tax deductible.

zygurat789

agrinnall wrote: »

But the OP says "I should say at this point i keep 99% (odd ones get lost in washer)of my reciepts and tally it all up on an excel spread sheet, month to month" which sounds to me like that 99% is all allowable expenses.

So all I have to do is list payments on a spreadsheet and they are allowable?:j

agrinnall

zygurat789 wrote: »

So all I have to do is list payments on a spreadsheet and they are allowable?:j

If only! But if the expenses aren't allowable then why would the OP bother to retain the receipts and reconcile them rather than just taking the £30K?

zygurat789

agrinnall wrote: »

If only! But if the expenses aren't allowable then why would the OP bother to retain the receipts and reconcile them rather than just taking the £30K?

Some people are like that, it takes all sorts.
The OP is asking if any of his expenditure is allowable; how often do we hear on here that receipts have been put in file 13 especially CGT queries.