Self Employed Tax Write Off List

What’s allowable? Make a note of this self employed tax write off list.

We have listed the 4 most popular tax write-offs and of course there may be numerous other costs that relate to you.

1) Entertaining staff

This is allowed for tax purposes as staff welfare.

This only applies to official employees, not freelancers\subcontractors.

Entertaining clients, clients or 3rd parties.

You should include this as a company expense, however this isn’t an allowed expense over a certain limit.

2) Home office costs

That is a low rate so only use this if your work house is minimal.

Claiming back your home as office costs is an important part of the self employed tax write off list.

To begin make sure you apportion your home running costs.

Calculate the actual running costs for your home and distribute them fairly based on how you use your home to run your company.

Begin by calculating the rooms number you’ve in your home, minus kitchens, bathrooms and hallways.

Then you have to work out the percentage of time any of these rooms are utilized for your company.

For instance, you can have four rooms, two bedrooms, a living room and an office.

You use one of the four rooms, your workplace, 50% of the time for yourself employed work.

Your total household running costs are 5,000 annually. You would calculate your business use of 50% x 1\4 x 5,000 to get a figure that could be classified as the rental cost for your business using a workspace in your home, which in this case would be 625.

This would mean that you input 625 on your tax return as your costs for working from home.

Tips: Don’t allocate a room just for business use ensure that there’s also an element of personal use to avoid any capital gains tax implications (capital gains tax relates to using a space specifically for business).

Some of the areas you can claim are explained below.

You may include mortgage interest in your calculations.

Calculate your percentage of business use and that’s the amount of the cost you can claim for your cell phone.

Make sure to keep a note of how this has been calculated as Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs might want to see some evidence of your workings.

3) Subsistence and meals

Subsistence – If you’re travelling to carry out your work then reasonable drink and food costs can be claimed.

The rules on this are comparable to travel expenses the travel must be allowable and qualifies as business travel and you must be away from your normal place of work.

An allowable scenario for a subsistence claim will be if you had been staying away from home overnight to work the following day in a location you don’t typically visit.

You can’t avoid incurring some subsistence costs in order to carry out your work and for that reason these will be allowable.

4) Training

Training – Trying to upskill or expand your knowledge?

In several cases the expenditure for learning, education and industry related trainig is allowable.

If you’re looking to continue your professional development, building on already acquired skills, knowledge and professional skills already acquired expenses are allowable for tax purposes.

If you are learning a new skill, attending conferences, trade shows, networking or undertaking a new qualification then the cost of the training\qualification or memberships are allowed.

Self Employed Tax Write Off List – Final Note

Always check your self employed tax write off list with a tax professional to make sure that you are doing things the right way.

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