Completing first tax return - what expenses to claim?

lea2012

I work full time but have been doing a bit of freelance work since October.

I do my freelance work from home at evenings. I have a small office space in our spare bedroom and use my own laptop. Am I right in thinking I can claim back for rental space and utilities?

I travel to client meetings once every couple of week, at approx 20miles round trip. Can I claim for petrol? If so how much per mile?

Do I / can I claim for anything additional? I'm not earning mega money doing freelance, usually around £200-£250 a month but I will need to complete a tax return and pay accordingly I just want to try and minimise it if possible!

Thanks in advance.

annandale

There are guidance notes on the hmrc site.

I believe you can claim for a proportion of utilities. Not sure about rental space. If it's in your own home you aren't paying to use the office space.

I believe you can claim for travel but I'm not a driver so I'm not sure what the mileage would be.

Have you registered as self employed with hmrc

Savvy_Sue

annandale wrote: »

I believe you can claim for a proportion of utilities. Not sure about rental space. If it's in your own home you aren't paying to use the office space.

You can but it's a bit complicated to work out, especially as it's not a room dedicated to your freelance work - which is a good thing, because if you DID have a room dedicated to your freelance work there is a potential for a CGT liability when you move plus a very small potential for the council to want business rates for that space.

We decided it wasn't worth the aggro for DH.

And I think you'll find the petrol / use of car is 45p per mile.

lea2012

That's great . Thank you.

I won't bother with the rental bit then as it is still used as a bedroom occasionally and sounds like a lot of hassle.

I haven't yet registered but will be doing that today as I know I need to do. All the work I do is invoiced so I have all of it documented.

Thanks for the mileage guidance too.

Suarez

lea2012 wrote: »

That's great . Thank you.

I won't bother with the rental bit then as it is still used as a bedroom occasionally and sounds like a lot of hassle.

https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-simplified-expenses/working-from-home