Self Employed Cleaner first tax return

lyndsb

This is my first self assessment since going self employed and I am not sure what is and what is not an allowable expense and the HMRC website is really confusing. Can I claim for my mobile, my road tax and insurance (as I need to travel to and from clients), car finance etc. or a proportion of these? Just want to make sure I am doing the right thing?

so_very_confused

Ring the tax people I have always found them very helpful when starting new business.

McKneff

Keep records all year then give them to an accountant, they can save you a lot

tacpot12

This link should help:
https://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/knowledge/articles/2017/01/what-can-i-claim-as-self-employed-tax-deductible-expenses/

Be sure to follow the link on this page to their guide to 'simplified vehicle expenses'.

Pennywise

You claim the proportion of costs that are "wholly and necessarily" for business purposes. So if you use your mobile half the time for business, you claim half.

Dox

Have a look at https://www.gov.uk/browse/business

May be well worth 'investing' in an accountant to set you off the right footing.

If this is your first period of self employment, you may not need to report it at all if your profit is under £1,000.

jobbingmusician

A few tips.

If you are doing the tax return now, it is for the period Apr 2017-Mar 2018. If you started your SE after this, you don't have to panic until NEXT January (although it is a weight off your mind if you do it earlier).

If you are doing it online, you will need login details. Send off for these NOW, and when they come, keep them somewhere safe as you will need them every year and they enjoy hiding. What I do is to copy them into an email and email myself, then tuck the email into a tax folder in my received emails, together with anything like a P60, P45, copies of any big receipts I need to keep, etc.

When you get your login details, be aware that the password is not the same as the UTR, and that the password cannot be copied and pasted in - you have to type it.

I found that the HMRC site had my P60 and P45 from other employments in the relevant year already there. I had kept copies but I was still delighted! But this hasn't worked for everybody, some people had to complete the details. (This will affect you only if you have worked as an employee during the tax year in question.)

There are some additional helpful tips in the first post of the mystery shopping thread in the 'up your income' section of this board.


I think that's it!

System

In regards to the car, I personally would claim mileage you travelled at a rate of 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles, 20p per mile thereafter. Whilst you can claim a percentage of the total running costs of the car which was business use it becomes more complicated and HMRC can and do query it. The flat mileage rates of 45p per mile more than cover the cost of running even a quite thirsty car for business use. HMRC will accept the distances things like Google Maps return.

Whilst we're on the subject of cars and business, have you got business use on your car insurance? If not you're driving uninsured when using it for business. Lots of people mistakenly assuming commuting covers them, it doesn't.