Mr Vimes has ordered a Garden Office (fancy shed, basically) where we will set up his desk and put the filing cabinets which have been cluttering up the house for a few years. He will work there days he is working from home as opposed to being on-site.
He is a self-employed professional, the "on-site" sites change frequently and there is no "contractor"-type relationship. He has been VAT registered for many years.
My question is this - is there any problem with him claiming an input credit for the VAT on the office and should he claim capital allowances over the next 8 (?) years? I don't expect there to be any domestic usage of the office, although the Christmas beer stash might find a home there for a little while.
I have gone to my accountant with this question, but I would also like some learned wisdom from the AAM community to feed into the discussion. I am a director of a limited liability company, working in IT (ranging from strategy, due diligence, roadmaps etc). Like many I have been worked...
I vaguely remember that thread. Mr V is a sole trader/professional so the Ltd Co issues don't apply but I don't want to attract CGT/PPR or Rates issues.
He is in a field where much of the work is done in public buildings but there is also a lot of paper-work behind it so "place of work" is home (many/most of his colleagues would have offices, support staff, etc but he is fairly low-scale).
If the sums are in any way significant here, you should seek professional advice from a specialist tax consultant. This may be expensive.
In the absence of robust advice, I'd be very reluctant to claim it even if you may well be entitled to do so.
VAT reclaims or more particularly the narratives required to sustain them can be something of a Faustian pact when it comes to property generally and the family home in particular.