Some tedious accounts questions...

[StrawberryMartini]

Sorry guys... feel free to ignore!

1. How do I work out how many hours I work? Do I count hours while mindee is at nursery? If that's the case then I'm working a 50 hour week even though quite often I've only got one child. I guess this counts as full time?

2. So if I'm officially working full time then how do I work out heating/lighting, water, and council tax amounts? What if I'm not working full time every week - do I have to count every day separately or can I do a general 'on average' calculation? I can just see this getting very complicated.

3. Can someone remind me what to do about milk refunds - I'm not even sure if it's applicable to me - I've got 2 four year olds.

4. Finally (yawn) as I'm using the NCMA accounts book - there's nowhere to state that you are only claiming a certain percentage of your cost e.g. if I buy something that ds can benefit from, I can't put the total amount down can I? There's nowhere on the form where I can say that I'm only claiming 50%. What do I do?

Sorry guys. I'll get the hang of this eventually.

You have to get something out of the business Strawb, so go for it buy toys through work that your DS can use. I bet there are times when his toys get used or you buy things as you see them & pay cash for them?

Lots of things are allowable against your self-employed tax bill.

I would have thought however many hours care you are charging for is what you put down as worked?

re bills- take all your bills for the year (heating/lighting etc) work out a weekly average then if you work 5 days take 5/7ths as your work expenses. Not exactly accurate but a good guesstimate which the tax man will be happy with I would have thought? Might be worth using an accountant to get basic advcie even if you do the initial book-keeping.

1. Only the hours the child is in your care count. So if they're contracted to come but arrive late/collected early or at nursery/off sick you have to reduce your working hours accordingly. Full time is 40 hours or more. Sadly you're not allowed to count the hours studying, planning, accounting & admin as working hours - only the hours a child is present count for the purpose of claiming the expenses mentioned.

2. Inland Revenue Webpage for Care providers

3. If you are providing full fat milk you can claim 1/3 pint per day per child under 5. Have a half completed form in the mountain of paperwork here. When I find it I'll post the address You can't claim if the child is on baby milks or non dairy.

4. don't use NCMA forms so can't really advise on this. I keep all receipts so would put your calculations on the back of receipt (or staple receipt to larger sheet of paper to give space to write) and just put the Retailer name, date of purchase and the amount you are claiming on the form. So if you buy something for £20 and you consider its 50% personal 50% business you put £10 on your expenses. But there are many things you can claim 100%. After all, when your own children have tired of/outgrown a toy it is likely to be used 100% by mindees. So you could say it was a business item. Obviously if you buy something for mindees you're not going to stop your own child from using it.