self employed help

[thered]

Hi sorry not been on for a bit not been myself but as ever when i need a bit of advice i can usually rely on DK to provide me the answers

i am thinking of going self employed my work will by and large be for 2 clients

it will involve lots of travel surveying property i will be paid per house call

my questions are regarding tax what can i claim as expenses??

obviously fuel is a biggy, but what else can i use to offset my tax bill

tyres,tools,maintenance will all play a part would a valet and a clean also be deducted??

do i need receipts for everything and does it matter if they are hand written??

can i claim money for pc use at home ect as i will be using my pc area as an office??

any tips or advice would be excellent

thank you

[johnboy1974]

Best advice i can give as a self employed driver is to get yourself a good accountant. A good one costs about 2-3 hundred a year and worth every penny.

[bobwill]

as johnyboy said get yourself an accountant I have been self employed over 30years and could not be on the books now for anyone. yes you can claim for petrol car repairs,insurance etc but if you only have one car you might have to lose a percentage for personal use I found tax man liked you to have a van then you can claim 100% .Dont forget if you use car for work you have to tell insurer and this will cost extra but if you dont your car will not be insured when you use it for work.You will need public liabilaty insurance. I would have an accountant look into claiming tax on office as if you sold house taxman can say you will have to pay capital gains on office part of house, you can claim for office computer and phone calls evolopes etc ,if wife or partner does not work you can pay her a wage to look after phone etc keep it under insuance stamp level and as long as you pay her it does not matter if its used to pay house hold bills.Dont expect you will be over ?75thou first year so wil not have to worry about vat.
and best of luck with your business

[thered]

thanks i may do that in the coming months but for now i want to know the types off receipts i need to keep to offset against tax and what kind of wierd and wonderful stuff is classed as allowed

i also want to know what receipts are acceptabe can they be hand written ect

[wilf]

any receipt is allowed as long as its to do with the business, so car, fuel, insurance, servicing, car tax etc. i get hand written receipts for certain things so they are acceptable. sometimes i get them for carparking and if they forget to give you one at garage for fuel they will write one for you. I sure this is not legal but i pay my paper bill with a cheque once a month at my local shop they give me hand written receipt that says its for advertising on it. my accountant never says anything about it. I think as long as you dont put something really strange through they will not bat an eyelid.

[smirnoff_rules]

l do my own self assessment online now and dont use an accountant , waste of money ,, get an accounts ledger book and fill it out every money , ie columns with fuel , phone , rent , rates , and so on , its easy for u if u havent got a unit so its just office supplies , remember after your first years tax they assess your next year so you have to pay a year in advance aswell as the one u have just done , so make sure u put at least 60 a week to one side and your nic payments ..

p.s your box is offline .. private joke

[thered]

any receipt is allowed as long as its to do with the business, so car, fuel, insurance, servicing, car tax etc. i get hand written receipts for certain things so they are acceptable. sometimes i get them for carparking and if they forget to give you one at garage for fuel they will write one for you. I sure this is not legal but i pay my paper bill with a cheque once a month at my local shop they give me hand written receipt that says its for advertising on it. my accountant never says anything about it. I think as long as you dont put something really strange through they will not bat an eyelid.

thats the kind of bollox im after

what im looking for is a nice balance ?40000 wages ?39800 expenses or somewhere near

to be honest though i will get the loan of a van but i can just tell them i use my car can i not ? and also get freinds family to save fuel receipts

[thered]

l do my own self assessment online now and dont use an accountant , waste of money ,, get an accounts ledger book and fill it out every money , ie columns with fuel , phone , rent , rates , and so on , its easy for u if u havent got a unit so its just office supplies , remember after your first years tax they assess your next year so you have to pay a year in advance aswell as the one u have just done , so make sure u put at least 60 a week to one side and your nic payments ..

p.s your box is offline .. private joke

it wants smashing up it is bag of 5hite

i miss my 7025 much better box this crashes all the ~~~~in time anyway for another thread

[patkins]

Sorry I can't be of help red, most is already covered anyway, but just to wish you the best for the new business.

[wilf]

what im looking for is a nice balance ?40000 wages ?39800 expenses or somewhere near

to be honest though i will get the loan of a van but i can just tell them i use my car can i not ? and also get freinds family to save fuel receipts

There really is no need to get other people to collect for you or lie about the car/van its just going to make you do more paperwork, if you were to turnover ?40000 and the business running cost are ?25000 you only pay tax on the ?15000 you also get a personal allowance of ?5200 odd (can remember the exact figure now). so as smirnoff says put ?50/?60 away each week and you will have more than enough to cover the tax bill maybe even a short break away

[gmb45]

l do my own self assessment online now and dont use an accountant , waste of money

when i was self employed you could claim the accountants fees as well

[digilox]

Good luck.
Iv'e just been to see my accountant last night to finalise my self assessment figures. It's a bit like going to the dentist .... you know you have to go but you don't want to !! ..... it wasn't a good meeting .... I'm going to have to dig into some savings this year to pay my tax. :-(

I have been self employed for 20 years now and I would find it hard to work for somebody now ..... however it was nice when you didn't have to worry about finding money to pay tax .... however the freedom of working for yourself outweighs the disadvantages by a long way.

You mentioned getting other people to collect receipts for you .... you got to be careful with that one ..... say you end up with ?1000 worth of petrol receipts but you can only prove you covered say 3000 miles travelling to see customers etc ..... tax man is going to smell a rat.

Your first ?6745 is tax free. You can claim "all reasonable" expenses for running your business. Pay the wife for answering the phone and doing a bit of typing and you can offset that against tax. Use of home as office ... you can claim something for that but sadly nothing like the amount you would have to pay if you rented an office.

Anyway ... best of luck .... if you can keep your head above water in the present economic climate then you should do well.

[smirnoff_rules]

when i was self employed you could claim the accountants fees as well

u still can m8 . but l didnt like paying over a grand l was doing most of the work , ie all he had to do was add up my out going and incoming and l had all that in my ledger and l did the vat myself , all my invoices were on a disc for him too will the 12 total at the end .. and always paid him and the tax at the same time plus nexts years in tax in advance ,, killer amount and he cocked up one year and l under paid and had to pay 5000 extra on the next year , so l thought l can cock it myself for nothing ..

and l still put accounts fee on my return anyway . if they pull me l'll say l pay my daughter to do the books over the year

[jordigirl]

you can also claim for work clothes, ie. suit, overalls, whatever u wear bascically, maybe the odd massage when you are stressed, and hotels for over night stays if you are travelling

[kianniamh]

you can also claim for work clothes, ie. suit, overalls, whatever u wear bascically, maybe the odd massage when you are stressed, and hotels for over night stays if you are travelling

Only the hotel bills and overalls would be cast iron I'm afraid, anything you can wear apart from work usually upsets the Revenue, if there is a company logo on the suit you would be ok