Storage of Business Items Question

Quick question - my husband is self employed and uses our garage to store his materials required for his job, which means we can not park our car in the garage. We are hoping to purchase a large secure shed in which to store these materials so that we can park our car back in the garage - would we be able to claim the cost of the shed as part of his business costs ? His Accountant says not but I'm not so sure if this is correct as surely if it is solely for using to store work materials and tools it could be reclaimed ? Also parking his van on our driveway has damaged the tarmac and we are now having to have this replaced with a new drive - can we claim for any of the costs for this as well - again accountant says not but I wanted to check. Thanks in advance !

Comments

  • Building work carried out on land you own is not normally tax deductible as adding storage space and possibly value to your own home isn!!!8217;t wholly and exclusively a business purpose.

    Repairing damage to your driveway is also not a tax deductible expense.
  • Pennywise
    Pennywise Posts: 13,468
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    There's usually no tax relief on the purchase/improvement of land and buildings. I also agree re the driveway damage. Your accountant seems entirely correct here as you have to work with the laws and HMRC rules, not what you think is equitable/fair.

    If, say, he bought a lock up garage to store his tools/van, it still wouldn't be an allowable cost because it's land & buildings. The only way to get tax relief would be if he rented a lock up garage, in which case the rent would be allowable.

    Land & buildings aren't generally allowable because they appreciate in value whereas paying rent is a sunk/dead cost that has no future value.
  • stphnstevey
    stphnstevey Posts: 3,224
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    His business could rent the storage space from you at a commercial rate for your area. You would become a landlord and might need to do Self Assessment. The rent would be tax deductible to the business, but would be classed as income for you. You could offset a realistic proportion of your mortgage, but landlord rules are changing and you might not be able to fully offset it
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