I
izzi81
- Original Poster
- #1
We're currently doing our first tax return for my partner's business (he's a sole trader). We're trying to do it ourselves as it's not that complex, however as this is the first attempt there are some 'first time' questions which are proving tricky!
The main one is this. We have a tax year, and I understand expenses, profits etc. for that time period. However, he also has costs incurred before he started trading; basically he runs his own gym and the 'set-up' time period was very long! He bought quite a few bits and pieces thinking he would get it up and running, and then it stalled for various reasons, before finally starting trading. I'm trying to find out how/if we can claim back the setup costs from over a year ago. According to what I've found on the HMRC website we can do this, it seems to refer to expenses going back 4 years, but I'm not sure where I should enter this on the form - just in general expenses? (turnover is less than £70,000).
Also, does claiming for costs from previous years mean our accounting period or basis period has to be different? We have a start date for the business, when he started trading, but this is not the date he started incurring costs. I see the form has a box 'date your books or accounts start' - should this then be the back-dated date for when expenses started? And then the end of the accounting period is the end of the tax year? This seems to make sense to me but I don't want to assume it's right!
Thanks in advance
The main one is this. We have a tax year, and I understand expenses, profits etc. for that time period. However, he also has costs incurred before he started trading; basically he runs his own gym and the 'set-up' time period was very long! He bought quite a few bits and pieces thinking he would get it up and running, and then it stalled for various reasons, before finally starting trading. I'm trying to find out how/if we can claim back the setup costs from over a year ago. According to what I've found on the HMRC website we can do this, it seems to refer to expenses going back 4 years, but I'm not sure where I should enter this on the form - just in general expenses? (turnover is less than £70,000).
Also, does claiming for costs from previous years mean our accounting period or basis period has to be different? We have a start date for the business, when he started trading, but this is not the date he started incurring costs. I see the form has a box 'date your books or accounts start' - should this then be the back-dated date for when expenses started? And then the end of the accounting period is the end of the tax year? This seems to make sense to me but I don't want to assume it's right!
Thanks in advance
