Use of home costs

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

I have been using this model: https://www.freeagent.com/guides/exp...ted-companies/

Is this not recommended?

It’s one means of gathering evidence that you are only claiming for “additional” costs. Only on inspection would you know if it’s acceptable to HMIT. Do note that as I mentioned above, you can only apportion non-fixed costs like gas and electric though. HMRC explicitly do not tell you how to calculate the additional costs, only that you must keep evidence, so use common sense.

The whole point of the flat rate is that it allows you to claim a certain amount without having to worry about calculating anything or keeping evidence.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

My accountant has told me HMRC are taking a dim view of people who built cabins in their garden during the pandemic and tried to do this through their company.

There’s a lot of reasons why putting the cost of a garden office building through the business is a bad idea, especially when the only true saving is the VAT, plus any income tax saved by not paying for it out of your own post tax income (there’s no corporation tax saving in buildings). These savings are not worth the potential extra hassle in the long run. It’s been covered in previous threads on here (I have a garden office so been there, done that).

However there are a lot of costs you can put through the business if the garden office is mostly used for work during the week - e.g. office furniture and equipment and you can still claim the additional utility costs as outlined above. Same as having any mostly dedicated room at home really.