self assessment- can a new car be included ( % use)

[GreatNorthern]

I know I can claim 45p mile for use but I bought a car which is used for 10% of annual mileage for work (no public transport available.) If, for example, it cost £20K could I claim 10% of that as tax deductible ? If so, where do I put it in the tax form? Is it capital expenses?

You claim capital allowances on a car, which is just 8 or 18% of the price, depending on CO2 emissions. If it's a high emission car, at 8%, then for 10% business use, you can only claim 0.8% of the car cost against your profits in year of purchase! Some cars qualify for 100%, but that's mainly just zero emission cars, so if you have one of those, at 10% business, you could claim 10% of the cost in year of purchase. For such low business mileage proportion, I'd say that the 45p per mile is usually best.

I think it's zero emissions- I only pay £30 pa road tax and the MOT shows emissions too low to gauge.

So you can't claim for the actual cost of buying it AND mileage of 45p a mile?

You can either claim the 'simplified calculation' mileage or a percentage of running costs / capital allowance etc. Not both.

but I bought a car which is used for 10% of annual mileage for work (no public transport available.)

You can't claim at all for commuting to a regular workplace.

Yet You can. It's not 'commuting' it's miles driven to meetings etc with clients; I'm self employed. the allowance is 45 p mile. I was asking if a change of car was tax deductible.

You can't claim both the mileage and a proportion of the cost of the car.

The 45p per mile takes into account all car costs, and isn't just petrol.

If you want to claim a proportion of the other costs of the vehicle then you can, but if you do that then then you must calculate the actual cost of fuel used instead of the 45p per mile allowance.

You can't have it both ways.

Yet You can. It's not 'commuting' it's miles driven to meetings etc with clients; I'm self employed. the allowance is 45 p mile. I was asking if a change of car was tax deductible.

Actually it depends. the rules have changed on this and are due to be tightened further. Have you actually looked into them?

Being self employed isn't necessarily enough.

I am self-employed (and do other peoples' tax returns for them).

Either:

You can now do a 'simplified' calculation for use of a vehicle. If you do that, you claim a flat 45p for the first 10,000 business miles, and on a sliding scale thereafter, and don't claim any other vehicle costs whatsoever.

Or:

You can recover a proportion (based on the % of business vs personal mileage) of all vehicle costs, and work out your fuel based on the vehicle's miles per litre x cost per litre x actual business miles driven not 45p per mile.

You cannot mix and match between the two options.

(Rules for vans/commercial vehicles are different).

Thanks. This has been clarified by Yamadori yesterday. You have confirmed what I thought, so thanks.

Yet I feel you are being a bit.......... patronising?

Patronising because I gave you an answer that you didn't like?

The other posters cant possibly advise you that it is 45 p as you don't tell us anything about your working circumstances. New rules came into place in April 2016. You need to go through this and see if they apply to you.

www.nixonwilliams.com/free-resources/2016-tax-changes/april-2016-changes-travel-and-subsistence-expenses

I'd actually suggest you either check the information on the HMRC website or consult a qualified accountant.

Nobody was 'advising' the OP Yet, just responding to their post saying that they usually claim 45p per mile, and wanting to know whether they can claim a % of vehicle costs too.

The answer to that particular question is likely to be a 'No', whichever way you look at it.