Can someone confirm to me that if I was to put through use of home for business for £3.00 per wk this wouldn't have any implications re: capital gains to my client.
Please correct me if it is more than £3 now, as I want to claim as much as poss on their behalf...
also can utility bills be claimed without arising to capital gains?>??(electric and gas bills?????)
-- Edited by lor on Thursday 12th of November 2009 07:15:18 PM
It is generally accepted that use of home as office is a proportion of all the relevent utilities e.g. gas/electric/mortgage or rental/council tax etc. dependent on the amount of usage (i.e. 2 hours per week ).
The £3 per week is a figure which HMRC accept without too much enquiry and is often used as the above can be time consuming to adopt. It this is applied then there would be no claim for utility bills.
The only implication for capital gains tax would be if the client had a room solely for use as an office/workplace. It is normal for it to have an additional use e.g. dining room.
Hope this helps Valerie
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Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I agree that the £3 per week figure would be acccepted by the IR without question but a firm of accountants I know put through £10 per week for their clients without any calculation backup and have never had any problems with this.
I was wondering if any other accountants put through a higher amount without calculations to back up the amount?
£10 a week is a fair amount and one that we have used for years.
The only time CGT would apply is if you claimed for an area that you say is solely for business use and work out the floor area etc and charge the applicable amount to the P&L.
Farmer Giles, so you use £750.00 for all your clients and put it down for writing up their records etc...just to clarify
I use £750 a year when doing the annual accounts. During the year I show actual costs just to show their spendings. I do use my experience with this and if I think it is one that the revenue may pick up, I will use a % of 750, it depends on how long the client could effectively claim for working from home. You can't substantiate 1 day a month for 750 pa but you can for a day a week.
Would this be the domain of an accountant rather than a bookkeeper?
Obviously, once the 'convention' has been established and agreed between bookkeeper and client, then it would be easy to implement as the books are done up throughout the year.
It seems to me, though, that as a bookkeeper it can be very easy to tread on accountants' toes, leaving them not a lot to do at year end!
A soletrader, partnership or SME may not require an accountant if the bookkeeper is experienced/qualified/insured and complying with MLR? A lot of the bookkeepers on here prepare accounts and self assessment returns without the need for an accountant do they not?
Yes, as I want to offer a one stop shop for my clients, and can't see why not offer as many services as I can, and also I thinks it makes it easier for the client and cheaper.
As long as you have the relevant experience and licenses etc then why not, I thoroughly enjoy doing all these services as it makes my job very varied, and can earn more from it!
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.