Travel business and tax

BarefootHelen

Not sure if this is the right place for this question, or even if anyone has come across this before.
In short, we are planning on going travelling for an extended period of time. We will be converting a van to live in and this will be our full time home. We won't have property in the UK.

We plan to monetize the travel and use it as a small business - ebooks, published blogs etc.

My question is - can we offset our tax against the cost of buying and converting the van if we set the business up before we go?

Many thanks and hoping someone will have an answer or be able to point me in the right direction.

Helen

spadoosh

You only pay tax if you make a profit.

Worry about offsetting your tax when it looks like youre going to make a profit.

Put the effort you wouldve put in to researching tax in to making your blog the best it can be. Much more likely to be a success with you putting your effort in to making good content than it is you worrying about your tax obligations, which most people never get round to being obliged to pay.

I dont think looking at offsetting tax is the right way to go about setting up a new business. Your aim should be to make as much as possible and then worry about the tax side of things later.

With regards to to the costs of the van, either way youll need to pay for it before you can start making money that can be offset against tax obligations. So its not making the van any cheaper, theres just potential to offset some of the costs. If you dont make enough money to cover costs, theres no need to worry about tax at all.

Thiona

BarefootHelen wrote: »

Not sure if this is the right place for this question, or even if anyone has come across this before.
In short, we are planning on going travelling for an extended period of time. We will be converting a van to live in and this will be our full time home. We won't have property in the UK.

We plan to monetize the travel and use it as a small business - ebooks, published blogs etc.

My question is - can we offset our tax against the cost of buying and converting the van if we set the business up before we go?

Many thanks and hoping someone will have an answer or be able to point me in the right direction.

Helen

a) as above, if you make a profit

and

b) if you meet the 'wholly & exclusively' usage requirement

BarefootHelen

a) as above, if you make a profit

and

b) if you meet the 'wholly & exclusively' usage requirement[/QUOTE]

Yep, I do appreciate that we only pay tax if we make a profit.....but, assuming we do, can you explain the 'wholly and exclusively' usage requirement.....we would be living and travelling full time in the van. We would not have any other property. Would this cover that requirement - where do I go to find out more....

Many thanks

BarefootHelen

spadoosh wrote: »

You only pay tax if you make a profit.

Worry about offsetting your tax when it looks like youre going to make a profit.

Put the effort you wouldve put in to researching tax in to making your blog the best it can be. Much more likely to be a success with you putting your effort in to making good content than it is you worrying about your tax obligations, which most people never get round to being obliged to pay.

I dont think looking at offsetting tax is the right way to go about setting up a new business. Your aim should be to make as much as possible and then worry about the tax side of things later.

With regards to to the costs of the van, either way youll need to pay for it before you can start making money that can be offset against tax obligations. So its not making the van any cheaper, theres just potential to offset some of the costs. If you dont make enough money to cover costs, theres no need to worry about tax at all.

Not worrying as such, just dotting the i's and crossing the t's as they say.

I already run my own fitness business and know from experience that there are certain items that cannot be offset against tax - such as the initial training I did to become a PT.

So, just trying to get ahead of the game here and see what the situation is.

Thanks for your comments though.

unforeseen

You could probably claim £18 per month for using your home/van as an office.

00ec25

BarefootHelen wrote: »

a) as above, if you make a profit

and

b) if you meet the 'wholly & exclusively' usage requirement

Yep, I do appreciate that we only pay tax if we make a profit.....but, assuming we do, can you explain the 'wholly and exclusively' usage requirement.....we would be living and travelling full time in the van. We would not have any other property. Would this cover that requirement - where do I go to find out more....

Many thanks

no sorry you are in no way anywhere near ready to think about the tax position

you will not be resident in the UK, so where will the cash be "received" - a website hosted in the UK, USA, Far East? ie. where will you be resident for tax purposes?

your vehicle is something that will be used partly for business purposes and partly as the place you live. Business costs are those incurred wholly and exclusively for business purposes - converting a van you will live in as your only home is neither wholly nor exclusively a business cost. At least a part of the cost is for your private use of the van as the place to live

all costs would need to be split between private and business use. If you spend 30 minutes with a laptop writing a blog you can claim 30 minutes of electricity used by a laptop, probably about 2p (or nil if solar powered battery source)

if you are seriously going to go ahead with this then find an accountant to advise because there is no way you learn enough to DIY your tax set up

spadoosh

00ec25 wrote: »

no sorry you are in no way anywhere near ready to think about the tax position

you will not be resident in the UK, so where will the cash be "received" - a website hosted in the UK, USA, Far East? ie. where will you be resident for tax purposes?

your vehicle is something that will be used partly for business purposes and partly as the place you live. Business costs are those incurred wholly and exclusively for business purposes - converting a van you will live in as your only home is neither wholly nor exclusively a business cost. At least a part of the cost is for your private use of the van as the place to live

all costs would need to be split between private and business use. If you spend 30 minutes with a laptop writing a blog you can claim 30 minutes of electricity used by a laptop, probably about 2p (or nil if solar powered battery source)

if you are seriously going to go ahead with this then find an accountant to advise because there is no way you learn enough to DIY your tax set up

The only thing i would change is the finding the accountant. Id do it after the whole travelling thing if there was a worthwhile amount of money coming in (by worthwhile, i mean start asking questions when income exceeds £1000 annually). Otherwise theyre probably paying money for something they wont need. Most travel blogs dont make money.

I think the OP needs to be prudent and assume they wont either.

I watch a few van conversions etc and typically the conversion itself does well in attracting interest but people generally lose interest in the travels aspect of said van. Itll need to be something fairly unique in that its special and good quality for it to be a success. When you understand most arent successful it seems a fruitless task to be counting the chickens before you even know how many eggs are in your basket.

00ec25

spadoosh wrote: »

The only thing i would change is the finding the accountant. ….

I think the OP needs to be prudent and assume they wont either.

depends what costs OP wants to claim given the tax year dates and the impression that they will be out of the UK for "an extended period of time" which I take to mean several years