Advice in Self-employ tax deductable expenses

v1ckyt

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can point me in the direction of a good book, guide, pamphlet etc which details the kind of things you can offset against tax as a self-employed person. I currently am part time employed and also have 2 very small s-e jobs, one doing admin from home and the other as a cleaner. Have been told if working from home you can claim a portion of electricity, heating, i-net access even mortgage interest as tax deductable, but can't get any real details on how much/what percentage etc? Am keeping all business related receipts, but think that for the last 2 years I've missed the boat of offsetting some tax deductable expenses. Funnily enough can't find an info sheet on HMRC website called "How to pay as al ittle tax as possible legallY" :rotfl:
Any pointers very much appreciated.

Vicky

fengirl_2

You are never going to find a definitive guide to what expenses to include in your accounts as every busines is different. The rule is that you include all expenditre incurred wholly and exclusively in the business...it does not have to be necesssary expenditure as its your business and you decide whats necessary to run it properly.
If you put all your income and expenditure through a business bank account, then you wont miss anything.
Regarding the use of a room at home, if you set aside a room wholly for business use, you can claim a proportion of the heat and light bills for the house. If you have 3 beds and 2 recps and use one bedroom for business, you would claim 1/5th of the utitlity bills. You dont include kitchen and bathroom as you have to eat and go to the loo whether you work from home or not. If you only use the room part of the time, you claim that proportion.
You cannot claim for mortage payments or council tax as these would be payable whether or not you worked from home - the test is what is additional expenditure incurred in running the room.
Don't forget that you claim capital allowances on office equipment and furniture.

Chilibean_2

I work from home and my accountant claims a percentage of my mortgage!