going on my own.....

[Paulgwat]

Firstly keep every receipt you can.
secondly draw up a list of tools and equipment your introducing into the business.
So a ball park fig for the tools, test equipment etc.
this is tax deductible, then there's office equipment laptop. Ms office software, anti virus etc, stationary, doesn't matter if you have this stuff already, if you are introducing it into the business then you can claim the total off your turnover.

Turn your spare room into an office and you can claim a portion of your house hold bills, gas electric and mortgage payments, (an accountant will advise you of the oercentage) if you can justify a cleaner for the (office) then do so, as long as you have an invoice.

Basically anything that can be explained as business related r business use is claim able. Mobile phone bill , mobile insurance, pens, sat nav, you name it, as long as its related to your business then claim it off your turnover.

Remember on paper you will make a loss in the first year which means no tax due.

Also remember a good accountant is worth their weight in gold, even if it costs you slightly more they can save you £1000s.
be smart about things and good luck.

Hi Lloyd,

Have you run into any issues with claiming mortgage contribution etc? My accountant has been very good (friend of family) and has already given me a significant list of items i am allowed to claim/ transfer into the business etc and how to organise the company structure in the best way from a tax perspective, the one thing he was very cagey about was claiming rent or percentage of mortgage on the house. any rent i obtained from the company would be liable to personal taxation (and obviously clearly traceable) and technically need to be cleared with the mortgage company. Also he had concerns about the risk that i might be liable to business rates which would be horific where i live. I also have loads of covanents on the house banning running a company etc from the house.

Likelyhood of any of the above coming back to haunt me probably slim but knowing my luck I would be the 1% that gets audited!!!

Cheers

Paul

 

[lloyd1980]

If there are covenants on the property you may be on a sticky wicket mate, prob why he has shy'd away from claiming it.
from memory it is a percentage based on the rooms in the property, so say there are 8 useable rooms and 1 is soley an office then it's 1/8th then there is the percentage of time you do paperwork in a shared room like the living room, so say you always do your paperwork in the living room and it constitutes 50% of the total time spent in there by anyone doing a business related activity then this 1/16th would be added to the 1/8th of the office space.

You have a choice with fuel too either claim the cost of the receipt or claim mileage , there is something called APP which is authorised passenger payment of an additional 5p a mile I think, this is on top of the existing allowance if your claiming the mileage, would apply if you had a mate working with you or an apprentice.

My old accountant was an ex tax inspector who defected from the dark side and knew the system inside out, he's retired now sadly, he charged a little more but was worth his weight in gold