Use of home as an office for companies

[John44]

Hi,

I'm a small consultancy running from a tiny office at home. I'm confused as to what I can claim as a company for home expenses these years. The office is tiny so little point doing a back breaking exercise of footage apportionment. I used to claim £4 per week until a few years back but I thought this got stopped for companies? I'm seeing conflicting opinions on whether this exists for companies or not?

Thanks
John

 

[Scalloway]

There is information on how to claim for the use of your home here.

https://caseron.co.uk/claiming-work-from-home-allowance-directors-employees/

 

[John44]

Thanks. I thought this was discontinued a few years back?

 

[Scalloway]

From here

https://www.rossmartin.co.uk/starting-in-business-77750/797-use-of-home-for-business-purposes

A company director of an incorporated business may enter into a licence agreement with the company for non-exclusive use of an office in the director’s house. This rental income can then be set against a proportion of the household expenses on the director’s personal tax return.

 

[John44]

Yes I am aware of this but my office is about 3m squared and my house is a 4 bedroom semi so to miniscle to bother with that type of analysis unfortunately. I just want to claim 'something' with minimal effort if it exists.

 

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

You can indeed still claim £4/week.

 

[MJ Holohan]

Do you rent or own your house? If you own it you are not able to claim your mortgage payments. You can claim part of your bills as these are genuine business costs.

 

[SteveHa]

If there is any agreement between yourself and your company, be particularly conscious of the "non-exclusive" use clause. This is important to protect yourself from business rates and to preserve private residence relief from capital gains tax on eventual disposal.

 

[John44]

My house is owned. The office is tiny so there's little point doing a square footage calculation as it would probably end up less than £4 per week. For the same reason, a rental agreement is not the worth the effort either. If the £4 per week still exists then I'll claim that, thanks. But I can't think why I thought it was discontinued for companies?

 

[John44]

Is a director the same as an employee of the company though? I have no payroll scheme so just pay dividends out as and when.

 

[Scalloway]

From here

https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

If you’ve agreed with your employer to work at home voluntarily, or you choose to work at home, you cannot claim tax relief on the bills you have to pay.If you’ve agreed with your employer to work at home voluntarily, or you choose to work at home, you cannot claim tax relief on the bills you have to pay.