online working expenses

fluffig

I have done ad hoc online work (e.g. surveys and web site reviewing) for a few years (earning only about £150 each year). HMRC told me they treated it as untaxed income under £2,500 and that all I had to do was tell them how much I'd earned at the end of each tax year. I've been doing this and each year they adjusted my tax code so I paid tax on that income (as I was earning above the tax threshold in my main job).

This tax year just starting I am doing more online work and I estimate I will earn approx. £1,000 from doing so. I was wondering if I should now register as self employed so I have just completed https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-a-tax-return

It said (paraphrased) the same as HMRC told me before i.e. that I only needed to tell them what I'd earned and I wouldn't need to complete self assessment as the income would be less than £2,500, unless I wanted to claim expenses in which case I should complete self assessment.

It's the last bit I'm now wondering about. I had never thought about claiming any expenses in respect of it before. Could I could claim any expenses to cut my tax ? use home broadband, my mobile phone and electricity to do the online work. Could I legitimately count as expenses a proportion of my these costs ? and, if so, what percentage of these costs would be considered reasonable ?

Thanks for any opinions.

agrinnall

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed/overview

If you use something for both business and personal reasons

You can only claim allowable expenses for the business costs.
Example Your mobile phone bills for the year total £200. Of this, you spend £130 on personal calls and £70 on business.
You can claim for £70 of business expenses.

If you work from home

You may be able to claim a proportion of your costs for things like:

• heating
• electricity
• Council Tax
• mortgage interest or rent
• internet and telephone use

You’ll need to find a reasonable method of dividing your costs, eg by the number of rooms you use for business or the amount of time you spend working from home.
Example You have 4 rooms in your home, one of which you use only as an office.
Your electricity bill for the year is £400. Assuming all the rooms in your home use equal amounts of electricity, you can claim £100 as allowable expenses (£400 divided by 4).
If you worked only one day a week from home, you could claim £14.29 as allowable expenses (£100 divided by 7).

TheCyclingProgrammer

There may be some expenses you can claim, but its unlikely to be a massive amount and remember you only get tax relief on your expense costs. You need to weigh this up with the hassle of having to register for self assessment and submitting one each year.