What expenses can I claim for when completing my tax return???

A question about : What expenses can I claim for when completing my tax return???

I am just sorting out my tax return for the past year. Im not sure exactly what expenses I can claim for?? I work from home for most of the week so any advice would be greatly appreciated??

Best answers:

• Have you not kept records of your expenses?
  It would help if we knew whether you were employed or self employed and what you do.
• I am self-employed. I know I can claim for expenses like petrol, stationary costs, postage costs etc, but some people I have spoke to have mentioned things like a % of council tax, mortgage interest if you use your home as an office?
• Yes, you can include a proportion of your household running costs in proportion to the number of rooms used. So if you have 3 beds and 2 receps and use one room for work, you can include one fifth of household costs.
  You are not claiming anything, you are just reducing your tax bill by reducing your profit.
  If you keep a running total of all your costs as you go throughout the year you will find next eyar's return much easier.
• I get money for socks (think I get Ј18 a year), training, study and anything I buy for work. Im a Nurse in NHS
• Including a proportion of Council Tax in your accounts will not give rise to a rates charge - the two systems are entirely separate. I would ot worry about CGT - the use of a proportion of your house over the period of ownership would give rise to a minimal gain. What is the alternative - go and rent an office somewhere which would cost a lot more. In 26 yrs as HMIT I never saw a CGT charge arising from the use of a room for business in these sort of circumstances.
• As long as you make sure that no room is used only for business purposes then there should not be any CGT problems.
  If you want to read more about what HMRC guidance says about use of home expenses, https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM47800.htm.
  The main point is that should you decide that Ј3 or Ј5 a week, or whatever, is reasonable to cover the costs of running your business from home then it is unlikely that HMRC will investigate further. You can include expenses more than this if it is justified.
• Are you an MP? If so then feel free to claim everything.
  If you are a normal member of the tax paying proletariat then forget it.
• My husband is a model, he will need to fill out a tax return at the end of the year. He had some work done on his teeth at the dentist (white fillings, root canal etc), can he include these in the expenses? What about his gym membership?
  These are all essential things to maintain his work as a model. Is there somewhere I can find a list online of what is allowed as an expense?
• I am employed by the council and work from home from time to time could i claim the Ј5 for use of electric etc...
• Airhostess - there is no definitive list of what expenses a self employed person may include in their accounts as every busness is different and it's up to the business owner to decide what is right for thier business. The only rule is that the expense has to be incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. Having ones teeth fixed would not fall into that category as there is obviously a large private element to ones teeth.
  Catanddogs - this thread is about self employed people and the rules for employees are different. You can only claim for the use of a rom at home if your contract of employment reuires you to work from home. You cannot claim a deductin if you meely work frm home for convenience.
• self employed:You can claim any expense which is incurred 'wholly and exclusively' for your business. Therefore if you work from home, you may have a notional amount for using your home as office, e.g as before, Ј5 per week. You may also claim the business proprtion of your landline and mobile phone bill, 40p per mile for any business travel by car up to 10,000 miles p.a., also you can claim a business percentage of your IT costs (PC, printer, fax, discs, memorry stick,printer carteridge,paper). If you have been on any training to enhance your skills then this is also allowable.
  You cannot claim any home cleaning costs or childcare.
  If in doubt, you can always consult HMRC or approach a tax advisor.
• Hi I am recently self employed, what I do is teach brazilian jiu jitsu in schools, gyms, martial art teams etc so I do quite a bit of travelling in my car (which is also used for private use).
  I understand that you cant claim when you travel from home to work, however I consider my home also as a place of work because from my home I record pays in and out, write up class plans etc for my business of jiu jitsu.
  So I feel I can claim for petrol on my tax return when it comes round to doing it, at the moment what I am doing to prove the amount I eventually will claim is recording the date I started to take note and the starting car mileage. Anytime I travel from the home to do a lesson I record the date and the milage done to one decimal point.
  My first question: Can i only claim on the milage from my home to the lesson or can I also include the milage from the lesson to home? Seems reasonable as my home is work also?
  My second question: I understand that its 40p for every mile up to 10000 miles pa but is this the only way of working it out? For example if I subtract my starting car mileage from my ending car mileage, then add up all the mileage I have done for business and calculate that the car for business is used 60% of the time. Is it safe to say that I could ask for 60% of the money I spend on petrol?
  Thanks for your time and any other advice you can offer would be muchly appreciated.