Boat as office

[tvr450]

I currently use part of the spare bedroom as my home office, but with mother-in-law coming to stay I have to box my stuff up and work in the lounge while she is with us. We have a mooring and I wondered if I bought a large enough boat I could use it as my home office.

Is this feasible?
Could the company buy the boat and if we use it for anything personal pay a fee to the company?

I wonder how this would sit with HMRC?

Be gentle please NorthernLad ......

[kal]

I currently use part of the spare bedroom as my home office, but with mother-in-law coming to stay I have to box my stuff up and work in the lounge while she is with us. We have a mooring and I wondered if I bought a large enough boat I could use it as my home office.

Is this feasible?
Could the company buy the boat and if we use it for anything personal pay a fee to the company?

I wonder how this would sit with HMRC?

Be gentle please NorthernLad ......

Are you serious?

[tvr450]

Are you serious?

Yes, but thinking about it I should probably buy the boat myself and the company rents the space.

It would be an easy way to add accommodation without having to build an extension.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

This sounds ridiculous, but to humour you...I hope to buy a garden office building at some point to work from. Whilst the purpose would be wholly and exclusively for business (any non business use would not be significant), when I looked into this before I seem to remember it wasn't worth buying through the company.

I can't remember the specifics but I'm sure when I spoke to my accountant about it he advised the simplest solution was to buy it myself and draw up a rental agreement with MyCo and charge it rent, equivalent to the cost of running it so there is no extra tax liability.

I have no idea if it being a boat rather than a semi-permanent structure would change this but come on...a boat? Who are you trying to kid?

[GillsMan]

Quite a funny OP, but the following link contains some useful information - albeit, it's strangers on an internet forum, rather than solid accountant-led guidance. But still, it's a starter.

Can my business by a boat? [Archive] - Yachting and Boating World Forums

And: http://www.ybw.com/forums/archive/in.../t-143419.html

Your second post where you suggest buying personally and renting space through the LtdCo is infinitely more sensible fwiw.

If you're going to pay true rent, you need to work out what proportion of the boat is used for office space, and what proportion is personal space, and charge the rent accordingly. You'd need to charge no more than genuine market rates as well.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

You would need to charge no more than genuine market rates as well.

You probably don't even want to be charging as much as that; the rent should be no more than whatever your tax deductible costs are or you're just going to pay tax on the rental profit anyway.

[JRCT]

Set the boat up as a business in it's own right. Boat Office LTD.

Then when it's made enough money, you can float it.

Do you see what I did?

[d000hg]

"Can I do this" seems a foolish question really. Can you get internet and electricity on a boat... if the answer is yes (here's a hint, it is) then you can. You don't even need a big boat.

Is your mooring at a marina or do you have to row out? The former is obviously better for electricity and I wouldn't be at all surprised if marinas offer internet these days, if you are on an open mooring you'd have to consider the possibility of getting seasick - staring at a screen is about the worst thing you can do.

[tractor]

"Can I do this" seems a foolish question really. Can you get internet and electricity on a boat... if the answer is yes (here's a hint, it is) then you can. You don't even need a big boat.

Is your mooring at a marina or do you have to row out? The former is obviously better for electricity and I wouldn't be at all surprised if marinas offer internet these days, if you are on an open mooring you'd have to consider the possibility of getting seasick - staring at a screen is about the worst thing you can do.

The answer is yes to all those questions, the biggest issue woudl be the cost of the morring fees and working out how to get that into the rental price that would also satisfy HMRC.

Marinas have been offering wifi for years but 4g wireless would work also as the marina rates are akin to hotel rates usually.

[tractor]

Set the boat up as a business in it's own right. Boat Office LTD.

Then when it's made enough money, you can float it.

Do you see what I did?

But don't sink too much in.