Self assessment - a few questions

[null]

Hi,

I'm trying to fill in my first tax return and am having some issues; who ever said this was meant to be easy!

I believe my situation is fairly simple; I've only worked for a few clients and don't have many expenses to claim back for the business. Namely:


A laptop I bought for the business (£350), used approximately 85% business, 15% personal - bought a few months after I started trading. Does this mean I claim £297.50 under Allowance for small balance of unrelieved expenditure?
Fuel for my car, of which my car is used approximately 60% business, 40% personal (I need to travel to clients' to conduct business most of the time) - for arguments sake I'll call that £400 of fuel until I work out the figures. Would this be £240 claimable under Car, van and travel expenses after private use proportion?
Car insurance - is it worth including this? If so how does it work in regards to my insurance dates (September to September paid yearly) crossing accounting dates (April to April) and would I use a similar adjustment to above under Car, van and travel expenses after private use proportion?


The other one I'm not sure about is interest from my savings account; my savings account is receiving gross interest and I have a certificate from them with how much I earned until April this year; which section would I declare this figure? To make it a little more complex around 6 months of this would have been whilst I was a student, so surely I wouldn't need to pay tax on this part?

Sorry for all the questions I hadn't planned on asking so many, and if anyone could give me a helping hand that would be great.

Thanks :).

[David Griffiths]

Hi,

I'm trying to fill in my first tax return and am having some issues; who ever said this was meant to be easy!

I believe my situation is fairly simple; I've only worked for a few clients and don't have many expenses to claim back for the business. Namely:


A laptop I bought for the business (£350), used approximately 85% business, 15% personal - bought a few months after I started trading. Does this mean I claim £297.50 under Allowance for small balance of unrelieved expenditure?

Same result but the claim is under Annual Investment Allowance. Don't use pence in tax returns - round to the nearest pound.



Fuel for my car, of which my car is used approximately 60% business, 40% personal (I need to travel to clients' to conduct business most of the time) - for arguments sake I'll call that £400 of fuel until I work out the figures. Would this be £240 claimable under Car, van and travel expenses after private use proportion?

Yes



Car insurance - is it worth including this? If so how does it work in regards to my insurance dates (September to September paid yearly) crossing accounting dates (April to April) and would I use a similar adjustment to above under Car, van and travel expenses after private use proportion?

Only you can decide if it's worth it. Technically you should apportion the premiums in line with your accounting periods, but in practice if you have a full year's accounts you can claim the full year premium paid in that period. Edit - it doesn't affect if you can claim, but does your insurance company know that you are using the car for business purposes?


The other one I'm not sure about is interest from my savings account; my savings account is receiving gross interest and I have a certificate from them with how much I earned until April this year; which section would I declare this figure? To make it a little more complex around 6 months of this would have been whilst I was a student, so surely I wouldn't need to pay tax on this part?

It goes in box 2 on page 3 of the form. The full amount goes in, as your status as a student doesn't affect your tax liability at all.

Furthermore if you are now earning, you should - must in fact - tell the bank or building society that you are no longer eligible to have interest paid gross unless you are certain that your total income for the current year will be less than £6,475.

[null]

Thanks David, that's brilliant.

My insurance company does know and I have business cover from them. My insurance started in September so so that's 7 months until April. Assuming my insurance was £500 would I take 60% of this as 'business use' (£300) and then apportion 58% of this (7/12 months used for business), £174, as my claim?

I'll speak to my savings account and get that changed. When I was a Student I was earning under £6,475 but are you saying I would still need to pay tax on the time when I was a student and earning under this figure?

Thanks again,
Andrew.

[David Griffiths]

The insurance claim is fine.

You pay tax depending on the income in a complete tax year, so if you are over the tax threshold for 2008-09 then the interest is taxed. It's not apportioned between the bit when you were a student and the bit when you weren't. :)

[null]

Thanks again David.

It's such a shame I can't keep some of that interest, oh well :).