First time tax return PAYE & Sole trader

[SellWhatYouAreBuying]

Hi all.

First time here doing a tax return, would prefer an accountant to do it but as I dont make an awful lot of money from the business, I need to cut costs.

First of all I work as a lorry driver earn around 25k+ per year, and I have a side eBay business. So PAYE & Sole trader.

Everything is up to date, I am Just struggling to calculate my utility Bill's, council tax and mileage.

I never kept receipts of mileage, it's only 40 miles total that was used for work purposes,.

I heard that I can claim up to 20% on my Bill's, is council tax one?

If that is correct to I just add all my bill's take 20% and add it to my expenses?

Thanks

 

[Newchodge]

Forget the lorry driving PAYE, you just enter that from your P60 figures.

As an ebay sole trader you can claim the cost of working from home. there are 2 ways to do this. First of all if you spend at least 25 hours per month working at home. The best way then is to use simplified expenses, shown here
https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-simplified-expenses

Alternatively you can calculate the % of your house used for business and the amount of time it is used for, then claim that proportion of your bills.

Suppose you use 1 room out of the 5 rooms in your home, for business. That is 20%. You use that room for 2 hours in 24 every day, that is 8.3%, so you can claim 20%*8.3% =just under 2% of your bills. That is why is is usually better to use simplified expenses!

You then need to work out the proportion of telephone and internet expenses that are used solely for your business. If 10% of those costs are what you use. that is what you claim.

If you know you have driven 40 miles for business you must know where you went. Just keep a record of the places and dates vsited, perhaps on a spreadsheet. If you travelled 40 miles you can claim 40*45p, so £18 is what you claim

 

[SteveHa]

You can't claim costs that are not related to the business. This will generally be costs that don't change simply because you are working from home, including council tax, rent/mortgage etc .

You can claim in respect of additional costs incurred in working from home, such as heating and lighting, water (if metered) etc.