How many overheads do you have?

[staranise]

I will be paying £400 a month in childcare (approx 11 hours a week). I'm also considering renting desk space as working from home is driving me crazy, hence I'd be paying £600 a month before I'd even earned anything, for approx. 8 days work a month - not guaranteed work either. I'd have no other expenses eg, transport, equipemnt etc. How does this compare? Do peopel ever work at a loss just to keep their career going? What expenses can you claim back from the Inland Revenue etc?

Unfortunately I don't think you can claim back childcare costs as a legitimate expense although someone more experienced will no doubt be along later.

Maybe its an urban myth but I'm sure I heard of someone who hired a Personal Assistant whose wages were listed on profit and loss account and the nature of the PAs job was childcare

I think you're right, you can't claim back childcare but I thought maybe office rent? (here's hoping!)

You need to have a chat to an accountant about what is tax deductible and what isn't, it depends on how you operate as a company.

So far (6 years) I've managed to work from home but I do have to pay for childcare as I need at least one day when I can make calls/write in peace and quiet! I've purposely kept my overheads down, but on the flipside I know if I was to pay out for more childcare/office space I'd just have to get out there, sell more and get more business in, which wouldn't pose me a massive problem. I think it depends what you want to get out of work and your approach to it.

office rent would be tax deductable but not childcare.

There's lots of thing you can claim as a business expense but it's pretty much impossible to give you a definitive list, t depends on the business. Some 'normal' expenses which most businesses would incur are phone(mobile and or home) internet, postage and stationery, travel, computer expenses, can't think of any more atm but the list goes on and on

Thanks - my work consists of me and my laptop (no meetings, phone calls etc) so I've never claimed for anything before (it didn't seem worth claiming for internet when we'd have it anyway). TBH childcare costs are so extortionate, I can't really justify paying ofr a desk, thoguh I might head to the local library if I start going really crazy. I'd like to start taking my freelance work more seriously now I'll have the DCs 1 & 2 at school and I just can't imagine doing that while working from my bedroom!

hi there, i have recently done exactly this and i thoroughly recommend it! I pay a little more than you but no childcare costs as work when mine are at school. I calculated that to cover the rental i would have to work an extra hour a day and so far it has more or less worked out - i go in before the kids go to school most days and let DH take the kids to school as he has a later start. I am a curtain maker so one huge benefit (and the reason i did it really) is to move my extensive rooms of clobber out of the house, but funnily enough what i love is the sensation (after 4 years WFH) of 'going to work'. Another plus for me as i am an extrovert trapped in an introverts career is the opportunity to talk to someone other than the TNT guy!

I am planning to claim it as a cost - but i claim every last reel of thread. I will lose the percentage of energy costs, phone bills etc you can claim when you work from home tho.

Gosh, didn't realise you can claim energy costs etc - will really have to look into this more. September is my start date for trying to be a bit more professional about the whole thing. I think my target is to make enough to justify renting deskspace!

staranise, most people who work from home claim 'use of office' which is a proportion of your household bills (elec/gas/water/council tax/ins) as an expense, a bit like rent, as if you were renting an office you would put all the costs against profits so why shouldn't you claim use of a room in your house.

You should claim all possible, legitimate expenses back against income to save paying too much tax to HMRC. You should however keep in mind that all expense would need to be justified/proved should you ever have an enquiry into you affairs by HMRC.

I think becasue I've only ever worked part-time freelance around two periods of maternity leave, I've never earned enough to worry about tax claims etc but as I want to ramp it all up a bit, I will look into this. Thanks again for your help.