# allowable business expenses



## douglastubbs (16 Jan 2007)

Hi all,
A colleague of mine is self employed with me on 2 different building sites (time is split roughly 80%:20%).  He has not claimed any expenses to reduce his taxable income.  I have a question about allowable motor expenses.  Can he claim motor expenses from his home to both sites (wholly and exclusivily) or can he only claim for motor expenses for the site he spends less of his time.  Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,


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## maxm (16 Jan 2007)

As far as I know you cant charge motor expenses when travelling to and from your normal place of employment 80%, but I know people that do. 
You certainly can charge for the 20% 

Check out:
[broken link removed]


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## Guest111 (16 Jan 2007)

maxm said:


> As far as I know you cant charge motor expenses when travelling to and from your normal place of employment 80%, but I know people that do.
> You certainly can charge for the 20%
> 
> Check out:
> [broken link removed]


 
I'd imagine it's different as he is self-employed.

You cannot charge motor expenses when travelling from your home to your place of employment.
However, when you're self employed your home is your "office" and you are travelling somewhere to fulfill a contract...surely this is allowable?


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## Newby (16 Jan 2007)

Andy Doof said:


> I'd imagine it's different as he is self-employed.
> 
> You cannot charge motor expenses when travelling from your home to your place of employment.
> However, when you're self employed your home is your "office" and you are travelling somewhere to fulfill a contract...surely this is allowable?


 
I would have thought so too.... but it depends on personal circumstances and the amounts being claimed. Seek professional advice!


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## maxm (16 Jan 2007)

[FONT=&quot]I'm self employed too with home company address, I work mainly on one site for months on end, my accountant advises me not to charge Motor expenses when travelling to this one site as its my normal place of work as such, he reckons by doing this I will flag myself for auditing. As I said before I do know of people who do charge for this but I don’t feel it’s worth taking any risk. I do irregularly travel to other offices or between offices and I charge Motor expenses for this without problem. Best speak to a professional, as everyone’s circumstances are different[/FONT]


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## serotoninsid (16 Jan 2007)

maxm said:


> [FONT=&quot]I'm self employed too with home company address, I work mainly on one site for months on end, my accountant advises me not to charge Motor expenses when travelling to this one site as its my normal place of work as such, he reckons by doing this I will flag myself for auditing. As I said before I do know of people who do charge for this but I don’t feel it’s worth taking any risk. I do irregularly travel to other offices or between offices and I charge Motor expenses for this without problem. Best speak to a professional, as everyone’s circumstances are different[/FONT]


If your audited, to what extent do you have to prove your expenses? .ie. do you have to keep a record of journeys?
What about the capital expense of a vehicle (+ road tax, insurance) where the individual is carrying on a self-employed business - but on a part time basis.  Would a certain percentage of overall cost be claimed?  If so, whats the norm/average?


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## wheeler (17 Jan 2007)

Records to be kept - Audit of Records
An advantage of the kilometric rate system is that employees do not have to keep a precise record of actual motoring costs. They would, however, be expected to provide to their employer a record showing, for each business journey: 

The date of the journey

The reason for the journey

The distance (km) involved.


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## serotoninsid (17 Jan 2007)

whelanfiona said:


> Records to be kept - Audit of Records
> An advantage of the kilometric rate system is that employees do not have to keep a precise record of actual motoring costs. They would, however, be expected to provide to their employer a record showing, for each business journey:
> The date of the journey
> 
> ...


I understand what your saying as regards an employee keeping the above records. But do you believe that an individual working self employed needs to keep the same level of detailed records?


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## wheeler (17 Jan 2007)

Absolutely. These details are really not detailed. I have seen other posts where it is suggested you should have meeting minutes, what you ate and what the weather was like that day!


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## serotoninsid (17 Jan 2007)

whelanfiona said:


> Absolutely. These details are really not detailed. I have seen other posts where it is suggested you should have meeting minutes, what you ate and what the weather was like that day!


Gotcha.  Thanks for that Fiona.
As regards the capital cost of a vehicle, would I be covered in claiming 30% of cost against tax (given that I would be self-employed on a part time basis & still working what would be classed as a full time paye job)?


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## wheeler (17 Jan 2007)

Can't say for sure about the capital car expense but I sincerely doubt it.

I recon the only way you could do that is to buy the car out of the company account and the company pays all costs (gas/services) related to the car but then you lose the advantage of mileage expenses.


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## Newby (18 Jan 2007)

whelanfiona said:


> Can't say for sure about the capital car expense but I sincerely doubt it.
> 
> I recon the only way you could do that is to buy the car out of the company account and the company pays all costs (gas/services) related to the car but then you lose the advantage of mileage expenses.


 
I think there would be some adverse Benefit In Kind implications to doing that....


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## pahadia (19 Jan 2007)

Is there any other business expense we can claim ? e.g. 'Home Office' 1/6 th of light/heat/rent/telephone/internet etc.
I use to work for umbralla company(managed by accounting firm) and they provided me all these. Now I work for my own management company(ltd company). I wonder if I can take these expenses from my company account ? Could someone list or point me a direction where all business expenses are listed ?


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