March 14. 2016
We recently wrote about ‘employing’ someone to take care of
your paperwork, answering your calls and basically all things office related. A
common question relates to utility bills and what can and cannot be claimed as
business expenses. Your driving school
business is predominantly run from your tuition vehicle but it still may be
possible to gain tax relief against certain utility bills.
Some of your business, such as preparing lesson plans and
bookkeeping is carried out at home but this would probably account for less
than 10% of your time. So what expenses are allowable for tax relief? In most cases, it will be small proportion of
your heating and lighting bills.
Unfortunately, rent, rates, council tax and water rates are not allowed
for tax purposes. It may be possible to gain relief by making a claim for ‘home
use as office’ but whether this is beneficial is heavily dependent upon your
personal circumstances and you should certainly seek expert advice before
proceeding down this route!
If you decide to ‘build’ an office in your home or add an
extension in which to house an office you should ask yourself if it is
justifiable and necessary for the running of your business. However, it is possible to gain tax relief on
items that you purchase to ‘kit out’ your ‘office’ such as filing cabinets and
the like, but not the cost of construction or converting a room into an office.
Generally, for a small business, a table in the kitchen will
suffice for your paperwork!
What would your dream office look like???
If you’d like further advice on this or
any accountancy matter please contact FBTC
on 0344 984 2515.