CMs - TAX Allowances......

[looneytune]

I just want to make sure I'm doing this correctly. I've basically got to fill a form in for something to do with 'personal' stuff but there is a whole section on stuff to do with my business. I know some of these things I don't put down at all and I'm sure that's because we can't claim BUT to make sure I'm doing these correctly, I thought I'd pop on here and just DOUBLE CHECK. So, how much/what % of the following (if we can) are we allowed to claim for the business:

Mortgage
Buildings/Contents Insurance
Water
Gas
Electric
Telephone
Internet
Transport Costs (it lists hire purchase, lease etc, servicing, road tax, insurance, breakdown cover, fuel and parking etc - I'm pretty sure I'm only allowed to do the mileage thing because my own children are also in the car, even though I wouldn't need an 8 seater if didn't do this job)
Cleaning/Repairs

A lot of these I've never included on my tax return so I'm not saying I should, I'm purely double checking as I need to get things right on this form.

TIA :)

No mortgage as it would then be classes as an asset, rent upto 33% depending how many hours you work, the others are percentage based too upto 33% toys etc if used only for childminding you can put it all through, if used outside childminding then percentage too. Not sure about home insurance, there is info on the Hmrc website.

If you go on the hmrc website and search for childminders the list should be there.

For transport you can either put all costs through (percentage too so if car is 80% childminding then put this through but not car finance, you can put depreciation through) or claim the current mileage rate for however many miles you do. My car is solely for childminding so it all goes through (we have another car).

If you look after your own children at the same time the only choice for most of these costs is the HMRC concession which is based on hours worked, but you can't claim any mortgage costs using this concession.

If there is some time that you only look after mindees, you can claim a proportion of your mortgage interest only (not capital repayments), but the calculations are not simple.

Mileage at 45p per mile (for the first 10,000 miles) is the easiest way to go, but it doesn't matter whether your children are in the car or not as long as the journey is for a business purpose. Unless your car is very expensive to run and you don't do many miles a year you are unlikely to be better off claiming a proportion of actual costs.

You might find this forum helpful.

You can claim a proportion of the interest element of car finance payments in addition to mileage, but you can't claim depreciation whether you claim mileage or not. Instead you can claim a Writing Down Allowance which for most 8-seaters is a maximum of 10% of the cost of the car in the first year, reducing thereafter. This is far more complicated than is relevant to go into here and now.