Real cost of new equipment?

[IR35 Avoider]

I'd be interest in seeing the specification of a £2000 PC. Does it have a 60" 3D flat screen TV as a display?

Given I already have a monitor, case, keyboard etc, my guess is a new computer would cost me somewhere between £250 and £400, depending on the options. (I have just put together a Windows 7 HTPC, with wireless keyboard, remote and external optical drive for £380, display excluded.)

[Clare@InTouch]

You need only look at Apple for something in that range!

Mac Pro - Apple Store (UK)



Nice.

[Mr.Whippy]

I'd be interest in seeing the specification of a £2000 PC.

AFAIK it doesn't have to be a single item that is over £2000, but the total invoice amount to be able to claim the VAT back.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[Wanderer]

I'm a bit confused by the proportion of time a room is used for business use. One of those examples seems to claim taking a fraction of 24 hours, so even a full 8-hour day is only 1/3. But that's kind of dumb if you don't use the room for anything else... businesses don't get to claim 2/3 discount for not being open 24 hours.

I'd say that if you only use the room for business use then it's 100% business.

If you spend 2 hours in the evening surfing the web and 8 hours working then that's 80% business use, innit.

[northernladuk]

I'd say that if you only use the room for business use then it's 100% business.

If you spend 2 hours in the evening surfing the web and 8 hours working then that's 80% business use, innit.

But if it available for use as a room in your house 24 hours and you use it for 8 hours as business then it is 1/3. It still exists the rest of the time and has to be classified for use even if you aren't using it surely?

Business don't get to claim 2/3 off as the premises is still available for business use. The fact no one is in it is neither here nor there. I would say you have to classify the room and then calculate the hours using it as business. The fact it is attached to your house makes it personal until you do business in it. You can't say just because it isn't being used for something else it doesn't exist.
You have a company car, it is still a company car when it is on your drive being nothing more than a hunk of metal on rubber.
If you have a personal car it is a personal car until you use it for business etc etc

[Wanderer]

But if it available for use as a room in your house 24 hours and you use it for 8 hours as business then it is 1/3. It still exists the rest of the time and has to be classified for use even if you aren't using it surely?

If it has all your business stuff in there then would you use it as a guest bedroom or a play room for the kids? What if you got called out in the middle of the night, would you expect ot be able to use it as an office or would there be someone sleeping in there?

If it's only used for business then it's 100% business use in my opinion, regardless of how many of few hours it's used for because it's not available for other uses...

[northernladuk]

If it has all your business stuff in there then would you use it as a guest bedroom or a play room for the kids? What if you got called out in the middle of the night, would you expect ot be able to use it as an office or would there be someone sleeping in there?

If it's only used for business then it's 100% business use in my opinion, regardless of how many of few hours it's used for because it's not available for other uses...

But what is it when you take your business stuff out? It is a room in a house. I would equate it to your car. It is your personal car unless you do business miles in it. It is a tool to business with just like the room in your house is. You don't have a room that does nothing but is soley there for business.

[RichardCranium]

NLUK,

I also charge for a fraction of the house.

For as long as I have been contracting, I have always had one room as an office, usually the 2nd largest bedroom. A corresponding fraction of the leccy and gas for the entire house then gets charged to expenses. (E.g. 4 beds + 1 reception = 5 rooms = 20% of the bills.)

Once upon a time I even charged 20% of the rent too.

That room has 2 desks, PCs, server, printers, fax machine, bookcases, filing cabinet, office chairs, and is indisputably an office.

My most recent accountant said I ought to only charge £2 per week as per HMRC's rules because "I would get away with that". But that was because he flatly refused to believe any contractor actually uses a room as an office; but then I now know he's a useless ****** anyway.

Link to HMRC site.

An interpretation of the HMRC page.

[XLMonkey]

AFAIK it doesn't have to be a single item that is over £2000, but the total invoice amount to be able to claim the VAT back.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

You are right. Provided the invoice totals £2000 or more, and the items on it are related, then you can reclaim the VAT even if you are on the flat rate VAT scheme. So, you could add a back, peripherals, printer etc all together onto a single order in order to get over the £2000 limit.

Still means you're spending a truckload of cash though, so it might be a good idea to make sure you really really need it.

[Scrag Meister]

Am planning to buy a business desktop in the next few months, never bought a business one before.

Word really needs a couple of 24" monitors (poss 1 30" instead) and a high-end graphics card NVidia 470, dev work benefits here too.
Couple of striped SSD to boot from and a fast secondary drive.
Fast processor for large db work, Intel or AMD not sure yet.
Lots of memory, 6Gb min
Logitech G19 keyboard for invoicing
Z5500 speakers for watching c# tutorial videos online.
A decent mirrored-striped NAS so my accounts are safe, sit on a shelf and straight into the router.

I won't have a problem reaching £2k and it'll be money well spent.