Leeway with 'wholly and exclusively for business use' regarding furniture?

[d000hg]

Purchasing an office desk and claiming as a business expense is fine. Wholly and exclusively in case law emphasises the motive more than the outcome and incidental personal use is fine in that context. By way of contrast, purchasing a kitchen table at which you do some office work would clearly not be fine because there would be a dual motive. There’s a lot of common sense in these rules. If your intention is to circumvent them, it’s almost certainly disallowable, but incidental personal use is generally fine.

That's an interesting distinction. Essentially there's a difference between the motivation to buy W&E, versus what you do once you have it? You cannot do your work without X so the company buys it, but you can then use X for non-work purposes? Or is that an oversimplification?

[northernladuk]

Do you need a desk to carry out your work? If yes then it can be expensed.

Yep. The rule of thumb is generally wholly and exclusively but with desks, PC, phones there are exceptions in place for some personal use. As long as it's mainly business. Broadband often falls out of the rule though as every household has it now and with streaming and you being connected to it for 24 hours personally and only 8 for work it tips towards more personal use.

If you really want to go to town then anything you have to buy for your business you've never had to use personally will do. Stationary, extra stuff for keeping paperwork etc can all go on there with the desk. Remember to get yourself the ergonomic stuff like wrist rests for long sessions if you are getting on a bit as well. Anything a real office would have.

No vacuum cleaners for keeping the office clean though as has been asked before.

[cannon999]

Thanks, that seems very sensible and will save me literally tens of pounds.

Do you need a desk to carry out your work? If yes then it can be expensed.

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

Thanks, that seems very sensible and will save me literally tens of pounds.

[ladymuck]

If primary purpose, intent and majority usage is business related then it's fine. It's inevitable there will be some personal use, much as a company may provide a user with a laptop but they access their personal webmail on it or browse for holidays using it.

[vwdan]

My entirely personal and non-legal test for this kind of officey stuff is "Would I buy it if I rented an office". Of course there's going to be an element of dual use - every time you turn around chat to a colleague in an office you're using the equipment for personal use! But, ultimately, the question is what the item fundamentally required for the purposes of business.

So, in case you haven't guessed - pretty much all my kit in my home office is via the Ltd Co. Monitors, monitor stands, desk, laptop, dock, printer, paper, chair etc.

[jamesbrown]

Purchasing an office desk and claiming as a business expense is fine. Wholly and exclusively in case law emphasises the motive more than the outcome and incidental personal use is fine in that context. By way of contrast, purchasing a kitchen table at which you do some office work would clearly not be fine because there would be a dual motive. There’s a lot of common sense in these rules. If your intention is to circumvent them, it’s almost certainly disallowable, but incidental personal use is generally fine.

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

A while back I expensed an office chair to my company. I work from home and sit on it while I do my 5 days a week job. I spent some time browsing the forums and it seemed to be OK.

I now want to buy a new desk, and possibly get another monitor. My PC was bought through my company too.

There's an article on the site What home office expenses can I claim as a limited company contractor? (contractoruk.com) that says "If you are using part of your home as office space for business purposes, you’re entitled to claim expenses through your limited company in the form of office equipment and fixtures and fittings." and the conclusion on the forums of past threads was that an office chair was acceptable.

But I am wondering what leeway there is, because what if I want to use my chair/desk to sit and do some personal work?

This would pale in comparison to 40+ hours a week of business use. What's the official ruling?