handyman - home office tax allowance?

[decorator73]

Hi,
I'm a self employed handyman and use a spare bedroom as an office. I'm filling in my first tax return and I've read all of the threads on here about working from home but as I only use the office for a few hours a week can I still claim something?
I also use the garage to store all my gear but don't have a workshop.
I'd be grateful for any ideas!
Cheers,
Mike.

p.s. info that might help-
3 bedroom house,
total bills approx £120 per month(gas, elec, water)

[crossdaz]

Hi,

p.s. info that might help-
3 bedroom house,
total bills approx £120 per month(gas, elec, water)

You can claim a reasonable percentage of the bills to be set off against your income - as long as you stay reasonable it won't be questioned.
There is an issue if you try to claim too much as you may fall liable to capital gains tax if you ever sell the house. I'm not exactly sure on the 'limits but I do know that claiming say 10 - 15% of household bills won't cause a problem.
Just make sure you have an answer ready which justifies your claim in case it is ever queried - it does happen on rare occasions, usually a year or two after you have claimed it :)

[dlp]

You should calculate a proportion of the household bills based on the area of the the house/garage you use for business and then disallow a proportion of that for private use of the area based on the time you use it for, or of course you can just claim the £3 per week that the revenue allows for the bedroom.

As long as you disallow a private use element of the part used for business it should avoid the cgt issue.

[elainec100@cheapaccounting]

The links for what to claim are in the sticky on limited v sole trader.

As a self employed person here is the link you need:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM47800.htm

[decorator73]

thanks everyone- think I'll just claim the £3 per week.
MIke.