Bought a second house for work purposes, what can i claim?

[handyandy]

I agree that 100% shoudl be claimable as expenses incurred wholly in carrying out your employment as you did not use it at weekends for personal use. I do exactly the same and also claim my weekly commute costs to get to and from my home to the work flat.

However, there are few complications;

If you personally bought the 2nd house then there is a good argument from HMRC that it is now your home (and if you make it your PPR then you are handing that one to them on a plate!). If it's you're home then it is not a legit cost of carrying out your business.

If it's not classed as your home then you need to keep in mind the 24 month rule if you claim any expenses related to it (most people only think of the 24 month rule in relation to travel expenses but it applies to any costs related to being at a temprorary place of work). I think a very strict HMRC interpretation might mean you could not claim the costs of a 2nd home for more than 24 months as you woudl be substantially working inthe same place. So you may want to show a patern of doing <24 months based there then contract somewhere else for 3-6 months - preferably you'd rent it out during that period to show it was not your main home.

I don;t know about claiming the mortgage interest but you can certainly claim a market rent as an expense (because if you were not using it for work you'd be able to rent it out) if you are clear of the above two points. However, if you do that then you will probably need to declare that as rental 'income' on the SA tax return!

You could always have bought the property through your company in which case you can probably avoid the increased income on the SA but probably still liable to corporation tax as company earnings on the deemed rental income (i.e. if it's a company asset the company coudl have been renting it out and making profit but it let you use it) - but I'd expect you'd need expert advice on buying a property thru your company as I'm sure there are all kinds of other rules and this is a pretty complex area.

HTH

[THEPUMA]

Re CGT, make sure you make a PPR election for this to be your main residence within 2 years of acquisition. This will then give you the flexibility to vary this election in the future and will at least entitle you to the last 3 years of ownership exempt from CGT.

I agree that 7/7 should have been claimable if it wasn't used at weekends.

[The Lone Gunman]

weekends aint claimable if you arn't working

Yes they are.
You can claim 7/7 as long as you ONLY use the house when working. As he went home at weekends he only used it for business.

[Torran]

why claim only 5/7ths of the rent before?

weekends aint claimable if you arn't working

[chrisl]

Well as i used it personally at the weekend and then the weekdays it was for my work. Well thats what i was told anyway.

why claim only 5/7ths of the rent before?

[DimPrawn]

I decided to buy a place in the end as i thought it would work out better in the long run and hopefully even made some money on this house when i decide to sell it.



?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7534052.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7445864.stm

You are clearly mad or going to keep the house for at least 10 years.

[Olly]

why claim only 5/7ths of the rent before?

[chrisl]

Yes i own it personally. Well at the end of the day its my company so if i push them they will do it but i just dont want to do something completly wrong and claim thousands of expenses and then come unstuck at a later date.

Somethings to think about there though.

Well I claimed:

Mortgage Interest
Council Tax
Gas
Leccy

I accepted 500 quid (I think) BIK on my tax return. Got through investigation ok (whether it should have done is a different matter though).

If you accounts are really adamant then have your company rent it from you at a market rent.

Of course I am assuming you personally own the house.

[ASB]

I started off rented a house for work down in the south of england and was claiming 5/7 of my rent as an expenses, i was going home up north at the weekend.

I decided to buy a place in the end as i thought it would work out better in the long run and hopefully even made some money on this house when i decide to sell it.

Now i have bought it, i am not sure if i can claim 5/7 of the mortgage and other expenses as i did before. I only bought the house specifically because of my work as i thought it would work out better to buy then rent all the time.

My accountants are telling me that i can only claim when renting and now i can not as its a purchased house. Is this correct and also if i did go ahead and claimed part of the mortgage, would this have any CGT implications?

Well I claimed:

Mortgage Interest
Council Tax
Gas
Leccy

I accepted 500 quid (I think) BIK on my tax return. Got through investigation ok (whether it should have done is a different matter though).

If you accounts are really adamant then have your company rent it from you at a market rent.

Of course I am assuming you personally own the house.

[Advocate]

Have you had an injury at work, or an accident that wasn't your fault?

'cus there's plenty to claim!

[Diver]

Bought a second house for work purposes, what can i claim?

Insanity
Diminished Responsibility
Under duress
Amnesia

HTH

[chrisl]

I started off rented a house for work down in the south of england and was claiming 5/7 of my rent as an expenses, i was going home up north at the weekend.

I decided to buy a place in the end as i thought it would work out better in the long run and hopefully even made some money on this house when i decide to sell it.

Now i have bought it, i am not sure if i can claim 5/7 of the mortgage and other expenses as i did before. I only bought the house specifically because of my work as i thought it would work out better to buy then rent all the time.

My accountants are telling me that i can only claim when renting and now i can not as its a purchased house. Is this correct and also if i did go ahead and claimed part of the mortgage, would this have any CGT implications?