Business use of personal computing equipment on tax return

[Lance]

I sold my personal computer equipment to my company when I incorporated it. All at fair 2nd hand prices. That makes the repair/updating of them a genuine company expense.
Of course if you suggest that you're stepping deeper into being their tax accountant.

Best bet if you don't want to do it again is keep it really simple and tell them it's up to them how they do it and if they want legal guidance they should pay a professional.

[xoggoth]

Cheers all. Rules pretty obscure, the wholly and exclusively does not always apply if the business use is an extra that can be identified and separated, eg you could claim logged cost of business calls on a home phone but not part of the line rental. In this case, not too sure as they could say the computer would need fixing regardless of any business use so don't think I'll bother to claim it. If she wants certainty she can always pay for an accountant.

PS I'll probably claim a business expense for thousands of pounds worth of cat litter and get her investigated. Then f* relatives will stop asking me to do their tax returns.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

If the company owns the laptop and the laptop was bought wholly and exclusively for business purposes (that is, it is essential to do your job) then any personal use of the laptop is usually considered not significant and the whole cost is tax deductible.

On that basis if the company owns the laptop then I would say any related costs such as repairs, maintenance or support would also be allowable deductions.

If she owns the laptop personally then IMO any repairs or support would not be wholly and exclusively for business purposes. The company pays to maintain its own equipment, not the director's.

That's just my opinion though. If you think you can justify it (do the support costs relate to some software used in the business for instance?) then claim it. The worst that could happen is you get a random investigation and HMIT decides it's not allowable and you are liable to pay some extra tax and interest. Don't think you'd incur a penalty if it was claimed in good faith.

[northernladuk]

I was told computer OK. Broadband and phone isn't.

[malvolio]

"Wholly and exclusively..."

The personal use exemption for business kit is just that, an exemption. It is not bi-lateral.

HTH

[xoggoth]

Doing a *** relative's tax return.

She has a very small limited company and uses her own computer. Her personal use of it is very small. Being untechy, she pays a lot for support, when her broadband stops working etc. Can she claim for any of this on her tax return?

I would have thought so as one can claim for a proportion of home phone etc. that you can identify as business use but the amounts are not small relative to the low company income.

Thought this would be easy to find answers to, but every Google link I click is about personal use of business computers. So any ideas? Ta.