Self-employment: business expenses while on maternity allowance

[nolabels]

Hello lovely mumsnetters,

I am hoping someone here knows their way around the minefield of self-assessment and maternity allowance for freelancers/self-employed.

I am self-employed, pay Class 2 NI contributions and will be claiming for Maternity Allowance in a few months. Now that I am pregnant (due October, so excited!), I am winding up my current projects so will not be earning any income from about month 7 of pregnancy till about 6-7 months after the baby is born.

However, in the time that I am not working, the business will still incur some ongoing business expenses such as phone rental, marketing, website running costs, car expenses etc. Will it still be ok to include these expenses in the self assessment at the end of the year? (The accounts will show as a loss as these expenses will be higher than the turnover for the year, seeing as I won't be earning for much of the tax year.) Also, I am VAT registered and have to complete a VAT return quarterly - do I continue to do this as normal while on maternity allowance?

The HMRC website doesn't seem to provide any guidance on things like this! So if there is anyone else who is in, or has gone through, a similar situation, I would love to hear from you and know your thoughts on all this.

Thanks lovelies!

Whilst receiving MA you are restricted in the amount of work you do (10 days),, but that doesn't affect any other aspect of your business, although remember you can only claim car expenses for business travel so be careful with this.

Thanks for your response MrAnchovy! So all aspects of the business would be treated the same, including completing the two VAT returns due during the MA period, the only difference being I would not be taking on any paid work.

Oh and I've only been claiming car expenses for the business, I was careful to read all guidance from the HMRC about that when I started the business. I've just struggled to find much information on what to do about ongoing business expenses and VAT returns while on MA, which is why I posted question.

Thanks again!

yes you'll need to carry on doing VAT returns when on maternity leave (even if they are nil returns).

You will be able to claim the expenses assuming they are wholly and exclusively for the business.

Also note that maternity allowance isn't taxable so you don't have to include this on your tax return