Claiming self employed business use for Oyster cards

Tel_ted

I work self employed in the events industry in London, and as such travel frequently around the city, often to multiple sites in one day. I would reliably say my Oyster card use is overwhelmingly for business, and it's use is essential for my job, and would like to claim some of its use back as a business expense. However as some of its use is for private purposes it would be as a percentage use, anyone know how to calculate and declare this?

Having looked on the self assessment information, I can say that it would not fall under a 'regular commute' categorisation, as my week to week travel is never the same, and therefore should be allowable.

The self assessment page seems to be a bit hazy on the issue, any help appreciated.

Cheers. Ed

HappyMJ

Tel_ted wrote: »

I work self employed in the events industry in London, and as such travel frequently around the city, often to multiple sites in one day. I would reliably say my Oyster card use is overwhelmingly for business, and it's use is essential for my job, and would like to claim some of its use back as a business expense. However as some of its use is for private purposes it would be as a percentage use, anyone know how to calculate and declare this?

Having looked on the self assessment information, I can say that it would not fall under a 'regular commute' categorisation, as my week to week travel is never the same, and therefore should be allowable.

The self assessment page seems to be a bit hazy on the issue, any help appreciated.

Cheers. Ed

It's self assessment if half of your journeys are business related then claim 50% of what you spent on the oyster card as an expense. They aren't too bothered if you've rounded it as long as it's close enough.

You could keep a diary for a few weeks to determine the percentage and if your travel itinerary changes then make a new diary for a few weeks later on. You can keep a diary every week if you wanted to it just depends on how much you want to record.

booksurr

1. you can very easily download a report of all journeys paid by oyster so there is no need to apportion, you should be claiming actuals not estimates

2. be careful you are not categorised at self employed within an area and so all journeys are commuting

pjread

Just use two cards, one for business and one for personal....?

TheCyclingProgrammer

A separate business card makes admin a bit easier but as booksurr says, all you really need to do is download your Oyster statements, identify the business journeys and claim those exactly.

Alternatively if you have a dedicated business Oyster and can demonstrate this to HMRC easily if questioned then you may be able to just top it up from your business account and treat the topups as a direct expense.