self assessment tax return expenses, light heat and Internet

bruceiow

Hi all, I am currently completing my first return for submission by the end of Jan 16. My background is that I am a full time employee for a company and am paid using their paye payroll system. I also do contact work for another company out of hours that I invoice for as and when work is undertaken. I have been meticulous in keeping records of my income. My business is a software consultancy one, I design and create software solutions from home. My question is around expenses for light, heat, electricity, gas, telephony and Internet services. I consume all of the above in the day to day running of my contact work so I guess I can reclaim the tax paid? Is there a guideline on what formula to adopt to get a figure for my return? I know exactly how many hours work I have invoiced for in the period and with a bit of work can establish my total yearly cost for each service. Is it just a case of pushing those figures together with the amount of hours in the year and using the figure falls out at the end? Or is there an easier way lol. Many thanks.

bruceiow

Apologies for lack of paragraphs. . Written on a tiny phone screen! !!

Pennywise

Have a look at HMRC's manual re claims for use of home:-

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/bim75010.htm

TheCyclingProgrammer

I'm assuming you're self employed for your contract work and not running a Ltd company?

If so there's a good guide here:
http://www.freeagent.com/central/business-use-of-home-expenses/

laticsforlife

What that guide doesn't say is if you use these figures then the chances of HMRC questioning your tax returns is far lower as the risk is lower.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Use what figures? What risk?