CM CLUB: Monday Morning Staff Room!...Topic of the day...Tax Assesments!

[PinkChick]

completing mine today, got everything together except expences and bills so doing that just now....so other than the normal council tax/water/elec & gas/sky multi room...what else can i deduct/partially deduct???

any tips on anything new we can deduct would be fab !...

Eggy bread and sausage sarnies over on the table with hot choc & cream just brewing ..enjoy .x

£4 a day for 2 course lunch and drink plus morning and afternoon snack of toast/crackers with cheese etc plus yogurt/sugar free jelly and fruit...i REALLY do spend this and more especially when i have the boys or my older mindee, whom all eat from arriving till they leave

my 'business guy' is what i call him, not a back street advisor, he works for the council and i dont actually know his official title, but he helps all the local business' with this kind of thing.

sorry also juice and milk 'on tap' all day

sorry im lost here...why/how do i need to pay tax for 09/10 as well as this (08/09) years tax???..not being arsy, completely confused?

Wow PC, I spend a lot but wow, that's a LOT!!!! I don't do breakfast atm but this is what I worked out I spend, on average, for meals/snacks etc:

Snacks - around 30p each so 60p per day
Lunch - around £1.40 each
Dinner - around £2.00 each

So I work out £4 per day for children having morning and afternoon snacks, lunch AND dinner.

Yes, the older children do eat more but I don't feed them lunch apart from in the hols, and they don't currently stay for dinner.

PC - can I ask where you buy your food from? Food has gone up a lot but I'm really shocked at how much per day you spend if that doesn't include an evening meal. x

Do you really have juice and milk on tap!!! . My lot get water on tap and the rest they are allowed at certain times, am I cruel

p.s. the water thing is not because of cost, it's because I thought it was best for them plus some parents only want water.

yes, my children can have milk, juice or water whenever they want while with me.

i shops at morrison and asda.

An example lunch is wholemeal sandwhich with butter(obv), chicken/ham/tuna/egg mayo, salad dependant on filling, so cherry toms, cucumber, peppers. Then a yogurt or sugar free jelly and peice of fruit.

An example dinner would be sausage casserole(carrot, onion, peas etc), mashed potato, puddings and gravy....chicken, oven chips, beans, wraps with chicken, salad and pasta...and so on

My older mindee's if here only at snack time have regulary ate...(one girl) 2 slices of toast, bowl of grapes, yogurt, 4 crackers with cheese..she was here 2 hours, not a 'big' girl..just hungry...im not going to say no to a hungry child.

That is EXACTLY the same sort of food I provide!!! I might need to go and check my figures but I was so detailed when working it out, now I'm not sure.

What does everyone else charge?

Well £4 is apparently the norm so im told today however as i provide 3 meals and 2 snacks, what and how much i provide (as long as is reasonable) is basically what i spend...sorry forgot to say breakfast would be bowl of cereal or bagels/muffin/pancake with fruit and yogurt..i ONLY charge what i spend, im not trying it on

For food I buy mindees food seperately and put it through as it is. I couldn't be doing with the other way to do it.

You've inspired me PC to dig out my reciepts and get them into order as I have 3 days off from now

There's a fab post on the CM forum about all the little things you forget to put down here

It's all open to interpretation.......sigh

aaarrrggghhh tax returns aaarrrrgghhh

i've earned hardly anything this year is it even worth me working out my expenses if i've earned less than £5000 ?

Coming back late to pick up some loose ends...

PinkChick you asked why you have to pay tax for 2009/10 as well as 2008/9 in January and July. The answer is just that you do! This is only fair - if you were employed you would have tax and NI taken off you every month.

As you work through towards the end of the Tax Calculation Summary and its accompanying notes you will see how this is worked out (p22 and 23 of the notes).

Violet if you have no other income there is no need to claim any more expenses once you have got your profits below the Class 4 NI threshold unless you can claim so much that you can turn your profits into a loss which you can use to reduce the tax bill on your bumper profits next year

& if you make a loss they balance against any other income for Tax Credit purposes

So take it off your DH's income (if you have one) when they calculate your TC

well ive gone over my figures, my meals/fees, expenses and got it all written down in plain english for him to see who comes when/how many times in financial year and what i deduct for their food, for some its £2 as theyre only here for few hours, for others its £5 as theyre here all day for all meals.

So at least now, i know in my own mind, the figure i have IS realistic and not fabricated so when he comes he can see it for himself..i had a good year last year, out of 11 children 6 have left and some reduced their hours so this financial year coming will be significantly less, ive also included this info so we can work out if/how much i may have to pay aghainst next year!....

so now i have 30 mins before i start work so am grabbing some lunch then tonight i will be ensuring all this years paperwork/reciepts/bills are bang up to date...im NOT going through this again ...thanks for all who've been helping, really appreciate it

Katy, have just emailed you

thank you for advice

i WILL do it!

Thanks MrAnchovy you sound like the man(?) to know!

I said I'd pay voluntary NI contributions each month, so will I still need to pay 8% on top of those?

Oh and when should I start filling out this tax return thingy? ... sorry, I might have been able to find this out through Katymac's link but it looked scary so I closed it quick

Leeloo1..tax return needs to be done by end of this month if you're filling in paper version or 31st jan 2010 if online..you need to reg with gateway to do online and the passwords can take a few weeks to come thru

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO don't panic leeloo - PinkChick didn't you see that leeloo has only just started minding?

Leeloo your first tax return will be for the period from 1st August 2009 (or whenever you started minding) until 4th April 2010, so you can't do anything until then. You will be sent a tax return in April (or a notice to complete an online return), and you will have to return it by the end of October 2010, or submit online by the end of January 2011. If you are going to submit online, as Kat says it takes a bit of time to get this set up, so get hold of your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) from any correspondence HMRC has sent you and start the registration process here.

Until then, make sure you keep an account of all your income and expenses (including food costs and mileage) so you have everything you need when the time comes.

The monthly NI contributions of about a tenner you are paying are called Class 2 contributions: they are not voluntary, you must pay them if you are self-employed, although if your earnings from self-employment are below £5,075 a year you can apply for an exemption. You will need to pay Class 4 contributions at 8% on earnings over £5,715 on top of that (up to £43,875, after which it is only 1% - fingers crossed ).

That link of Katy's was a bit technical . You don't have to struggle through this alone, free face-to-face advice and assistance for people starting up in business is available from the
HMRC business support team and your local Business Link.

Awww, thanks MrAnchovy, you are very sweet to help out the financially incompetent (me!) like this! And Pinkchick you are very unkind to scare the pants off me like that! Anyway, phew! Such a relief to know I don't need to worry about it until Jan 11!

I was trying to work out my expenses this morning (having panicked when I read the posts - but probably not a bad idea to get it all organised even if it is premature!), but I'm a bit confused (not much new there!) because there's such a difference between how much % you can claim for heating/lighting (25%) and council tax (7%), so how can I work out what % I would be able to claim for
Home Insurance
Internet
Mobile phone
House phone
TV license/ Sky TV (my babies watch Waybuloo before naps, so please no-one shout at me for letting them watch TV!)

answers on a postcard please!