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Business expenses

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Home, Law & Money
How do I claim for electricity and heating used while I've been working from home. My accountant has asked me to send everything in to him but I dont know what I should send in to claim for these expenses or how much to claim back :S

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Err - wouldn't this be better answered by your accountant?!?!?!

    Without specific receipting, it is going to be very difficult to work out such a figure... Perhaps take the total bill, and break the day into three 8 hour periods.

    1. 8 hours 'working'.
    2. 8 hours 'living'.
    3. 8 hours 'sleeping'.

    Submit the 33% of the bill that you could attribute to the 8 hours per day when working. Of course, this is doubtful you will be working 7 days a week.

    Perhaps this is more hassle than it is worth.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I didn't wanna ring him asking silly questions and sounding like a chump, just wanted to get some knowledge first, thanks.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    D86 wrote: »
    I didn't wanna ring him asking silly questions and sounding like a chump, just wanted to get some knowledge first, thanks.

    How would you be sounding like a chump? It's his job.

    Without itemised billing, breaking this down is going to be tough to present - you need professional advice.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The general rule as far as I understand is that you can put through the bills for one room in your house if you work from home. So basically count up the amount of rooms including bedrooms, then divide your monthly bills by that amount and claim for 1 rooms worth of bills.

    Hope that helps!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Or compare your bills from before you started working from home, to what they are after.

    I think if it's not more than a few quid it really won't be worth it, especially when you consider the hassle you'll get from the tax man to start doing self-assesments e.t.c.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Splodgey wrote: »
    The general rule as far as I understand is that you can put through the bills for one room in your house if you work from home. So basically count up the amount of rooms including bedrooms, then divide your monthly bills by that amount and claim for 1 rooms worth of bills.

    Hope that helps!

    Pretty much. You dont count any hallways or bathrooms/toilets. So if you have a 3-bed house with a kitchen and living room and use one room for a office, you have 5 useable rooms so can claim 20% of your total bills.

    You can claim for Electric, gas (for heating), council tax, rent/mortage interest (but not capital repayments), water etc. If you dont have the original bills then you should be able to find the figures from your bank statements.

    Its a very common expense for the self-employed to claim for, but HM Revenue & Customs policy is quite specific about what can and cant be claimed.
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