WFH and expenses

[Lance]

my accountant counts all the weeks and tells me to take it all out as an expense claim at the end of the year. Nice little bonus.

you pay your accountant to count the weeks in a year?

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Thanks for the replies, I will investigate further. My initial thinking (outside of the £6 a week), was expensing part of the rent, as suggested in this article.

Working from home? Make sure you claim these expenses - FreeAgent

Something along the lines of 20-30% of rent, so it's not too excessive for HMRC to start questioning it (total rent for the year = £10k, so £2-3k for rent expenses). I also saw something about drafting a rental agreement, if my rent lease allows for sub-letting.

EDIT: Just seen the guide that northernladuk posted for bartman - this was interesting link (Contractors’ Questions: How much to claim for my home-based office?). I guess my future WFH is not my choice, as the site office will only request certain people to work onsite, and given the social distancing that is likely to remain even after lockdown, working onsite is unlikely to be available to me. Hmm tough one to ponder.

If you’re not self employed then the FreeAgent article doesn’t apply. Read the HMRC link I posted. You can’t claim for a share of your rent as a director.

There is a way around this involving a letting agreement with YourCo where you charge it rent, but you have to declare the rent in your tax return and offset it with appropriate expenses. This is far more complicated though.

Just claim £6/week.

[Paralytic]

you pay your accountant to count the weeks in a year?

I blame NLUK.

[pr1]

!! 6 quid a week, is it really worth the effort

What about £312 once a year? That's gotta be worth it for the 5 mins of "effort"?

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

What about £312 once a year? That's gotta be worth it for the 5 mins of "effort"?

Indeed. What exactly is this “effort”? Bank transfer (or credit directors loan account) once a year, explain transaction in FreeAgent as use of home, job done.

[SimonMac]

!! 6 quid a week, is it really worth the effort

What effort? Set a recurring expense in FreeAgent and you don't have to do anything else

[Lance]

What effort? Set a recurring expense in FreeAgent and you don't have to do anything else

to be fair. It's taken me more than five minutes as I had to change the value this month as the allowance has gone up.


So about 10 minutes effort, for the 5 years I've been using Free agent, so over £1,000 for 10 minutes.... If you just count the tax saving at 7.5% that's still not bad at over £75 for 10 minutes.

[WordIsBond]

If you just count the tax saving at 7.5% that's still not bad at over £75 for 10 minutes.

If you're only saving 7.5% you're doing something wrong. Maybe the guy who asks his accountant to handle it is onto something.

[Lance]

If you're only saving 7.5% you're doing something wrong. Maybe the guy who asks his accountant to handle it is onto something.

that was merely speculative assuming a tax saving of the basic dividend rate.
As I've already used that allowance it's more like £325....

I think it would take longer to email the accountant to ask him to make a recurring expense on FA than it would to do it myself./
And that it still less time than to write this....

[Old Greg]

that was merely speculative assuming a tax saving of the basic dividend rate.
As I've already used that allowance it's more like £325....

I think it would take longer to email the accountant to ask him to make a recurring expense on FA than it would to do it myself./
And that it still less time than to write this....

CT saving as well.