"Change expenses which have not been reimbursed"

[kingcook]

Hi,

Just trying to fill in the part of my Self Assessment, and there's something i'm not understanding.

During last tax year (2010/11), business expenses that i paid out of my own pocket totalled £4140. This amount has been reimbursed to me.

So, on the "Taxable benefits and expenses" page, i enter £4140 (in the "Expenses payments received and balancing charges" box).

On the next page, "Employment expenses", i enter the same amount £4140 into the "Business travel and subsistence expenses" box.

Is that correct? If so, why (when i go back to part to Check Progress), the link to go back to entering "Employment expenses" is labelled "Change expenses which have not been reimbursed".

I'm a bit concerned about the "have not been reimbursed" part.

Anyone?

[Greg@CapitalCity]

Correct

What you have done is correct. The two expense categories offset each other so that your overall personal tax calculation is unaffected by the inclusion of these expenses.

As for the "Change expenses which have not been reimbursed" part - it has been a while since I have used the HMRC online filing software, but from memory I believe this is just a poor choice of words the HMRC used in their software to refer to the employment expenses.

[kingcook]

Thanks Greg, at least i now i'm not going insane anymore!

[RasputinDude]

I believe this is just a poor choice of words the HMRC used

Surely, you're not suggesting that HMRC have made a poor choice in something? And there was me thinking that they were the pinnacle of excellence in all things.

[Lumiere]

If they are genuine business expenses like mileage / trains / taxis / hotel, they are not really "Taxable benefits and expenses" as there is no tax due ?

[kingcook]

If they are genuine business expenses like mileage / trains / taxis / hotel, they are not really "Taxable benefits and expenses" as there is no tax due ?

Yes, i was confused by this at first, but now i take it to mean that the "expenses" part of the sentence doesn't imply "taxable". So IMO it means;

1) Taxable benefits
and
2) expenses (not taxable)

[Greg@CapitalCity]

Correct. You are putting the expense information in the right area, its just those user friendly HMRC headings that can cause some confusion.