Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Tax form advice for 2006! (revived thread)

pinkmonkey said:
((((((((madzone))))))))) I do hope it works out for you. Its not easy. We were fortunate to have savings when we started, but it was still terrifying not getting any work at all in the first six months. The sad thing I've noticed is how many people run out of cash/give up just before the business takes off.

Anyway what does the blimmin housing benefit woman know? I sometimes wonder about the so-called advice we get given and I certainly trust the accountant more than the IR, who forgot to send my tax return to me last year. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


He's been doing it for ten years and not one year has he made any profit :rolleyes: Landscape gardeners are usually rolling in it - not him.
When I'm better I'll probably go self employed myself - I'm much more busines minded than him. I've just got to work out what it is I want to do :)

Re the IR - I sent his return about 3 weeks ago and had a call from them yesterday saying if it's not in by 31st Jan he's liable for a fine - they worry me.

What is it you do?
 
madzone said:
He's been doing it for ten years and not one year has he made any profit :rolleyes: Landscape gardeners are usually rolling in it - not him.
When I'm better I'll probably go self employed myself - I'm much more busines minded than him. I've just got to work out what it is I want to do :)

Re the IR - I sent his return about 3 weeks ago and had a call from them yesterday saying if it's not in by 31st Jan he's liable for a fine - they worry me.

What is it you do?
Click to expand...

Perhaps when you go self employed you could try help him find out why he's not profitable.
We do fashion design - shoes. Get very little work from England though. Biggest client is in Scotland, next biggest is in Iceland, then got one in Saudi, then one in Sweden. El Jugadors background is web design and graphics, but its hard to make a living out of that these days - its all gone to India. But all his skills are relevant to what we do and he's great at sole design and technical drawings (which I hate).
I also sell on Ebay to fill in the quiet times. El Jugador does a bit of van driving and narrowboat skippering too. We like variety.
Earn less than we used to, but our quality of life is better. I find now we're at home we can live really lean. Haven't spent a bean since Monday. Can't say I could do that when I worked in the West End.
 
pinkmonkey said:
Perhaps when you go self employed you could try help him find out why he's not profitable.
We do fashion design - shoes. Get very little work from England though. Biggest client is in Scotland, next biggest is in Iceland, then got one in Saudi, then one in Sweden. El Jugadors background is web design and graphics, but its hard to make a living out of that these days - its all gone to India. But all his skills are relevant to what we do and he's great at sole design and technical drawings (which I hate).
I also sell on Ebay to fill in the quiet times. El Jugador does a bit of van driving and narrowboat skippering too. We like variety.
Earn less than we used to, but our quality of life is better. I find now we're at home we can live really lean. Haven't spent a bean since Monday. Can't say I could do that when I worked in the West End.
Click to expand...

That sounds fab. :)

He's not profitable because he's crap :( He doesn't ever look at a bank statement and as a result pays about £100 a month bank charges. He's just not business minded in the least. As an example he was doing a hedgetrimming job last summer and the trimmer broke. Instead of explaining to the customer what had happened and saying he'd come back in a day or two he went straight out and bought the first one he saw - £400 (the job he was doing was only paying £100) The day after we were in an equpt hire place and they were selling the same hedge trimmer for £150. He does things like that all the time. He'll come home with a £400 lawnmower when he's only earned £100 that week. He's in 10k worth of debt. I've borrowed 3 and a half grand in my name over the years to bail him out. He got fined £300 for not filing his tax return last year - he just wouldn't open the envelopes. It's not a problem until I'm not working and we have to claim some kind of benefits. Trying to explain to people that he's been doing this for 10 years and has never made a penny is really hard. They look at me like I'm making it up - who wouldn't?
Still, he's good with the sheep :D :rolleyes:
 
madzone said:
That sounds fab. :)

He's not profitable because he's crap :( He doesn't ever look at a bank statement and as a result pays about £100 a month bank charges. He's just not business minded in the least. As an example he was doing a hedgetrimming job last summer and the trimmer broke. Instead of explaining to the customer what had happened and saying he'd come back in a day or two he went straight out and bought the first one he saw - £400 (the job he was doing was only paying £100) The day after we were in an equpt hire place and they were selling the same hedge trimmer for £150. He does things like that all the time. He'll come home with a £400 lawnmower when he's only earned £100 that week. He's in 10k worth of debt. I've borrowed 3 and a half grand in my name over the years to bail him out. He got fined £300 for not filing his tax return last year - he just wouldn't open the envelopes. It's not a problem until I'm not working and we have to claim some kind of benefits. Trying to explain to people that he's been doing this for 10 years and has never made a penny is really hard. They look at me like I'm making it up - who wouldn't?
Still, he's good with the sheep :D :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Uhuhhh therein lies the problem. Maybe you can cut his cards up and give him pocket money. :p Our main problem is the constant forking out on software hardware, stationery and trips to trade shows. Currently skint because of the laptop we got last week. I don't use credit though - I can't be trusted so I don't go near it. I can be really tight though. I've been known to book hotels next door to supermarkets so I can make sandwiches to take there instead of buying them at the show!
 
editor said:
Err, how much 'experience' do you have to have to realise that you can't copy a single piece of text off a protected PDF document?

QUOTE]

Oddly I have never had that problem. I have used PDFs for a long time now, I started using them when I was doing OU study. I still use them a lot as some study systems and referencing systems use them, as to many government departments. (In the case of some government departments PDF is the only format downloads are in, and this is a result of consultation with users).
Click to expand...
 
pinkmonkey said:
Uhuhhh therein lies the problem. Maybe you can cut his cards up and give him pocket money. :p Our main problem is the constant forking out on software hardware, stationery and trips to trade shows. Currently skint because of the laptop we got last week. I don't use credit though - I can't be trusted so I don't go near it. I can be really tight though. I've been known to book hotels next door to supermarkets so I can make sandwiches to take there instead of buying them at the show!
Click to expand...
I can get more of a buzz from being a tightass then I can from having a splurge. I make our own soap and stuff and I get really excited and bore the pants of anyone who'll listen when I've made a batch. :rolleyes:
 
Editor,

Don't forget you can skip down to your local tax office and ask them for help with the forms.

My local tax office is very understanding and helpful, I guess yours would be as well.

Your nearest one is here:

Lancaster House
70 Newington Causeway
Gaunt Street
SE1 6DG

If I was you, I would just fill out the forms as best as you can, they'll help you fill in the rest and if you have all of your receipts paperwork and stuff, I see no reason why you can't get the whole lot out of the way in one day.
 
madzone said:
lol :D

But wasn't there some new tax complication for self employed computer programmers last year? I dunno - the genral concensus with self employed people that I've spoken to is that it's becoming harder. Maybe it's just us disgruntled smallholders ;)

The woman at Housing benefit said somehting that confused me today. She said we wouldn't be able to claim the repayments on my husbands vehicke because it's an asset. But he's a landscape gardener and I can't see him being able to cart cement mixers and the tonnes of stone he has to use without it? Surely you should be able to claim for somehting that's neccessary to run your business?
I think we'll probably end up going on the dole - fuck em all. I'm fed up trying to do the right thing :(
Click to expand...


compu programmers: there was a lot of problems when a new bit of law came in that made it wrong for you only to be employed by one person all year. A lot of tech people were freelancing but made a ton by effectively being employed every day by the same company. (so technically they were employed by that company as 'full time' and so should have received sick pay / holiday etc). as long as you have at least two companies that you invoice you should be ok. It was just to stop big companies hiring a load of freelancers as fulltime and avoid paying for their sick / holiday pay and pensions....

the assets thing: it depends if you've already claimed the total amount in previous tax years already.... then you get into 'balances' n 'depreciation' and all that complicated stuff that I have no idea about.... :eek:
 
eme said:
compu programmers: there was a lot of problems when a new bit of law came in that made it wrong for you only to be employed by one person all year. A lot of tech people were freelancing but made a ton by effectively being employed every day by the same company. (so technically they were employed by that company as 'full time' and so should have received sick pay / holiday etc). as long as you have at least two companies that you invoice you should be ok. It was just to stop big companies hiring a load of freelancers as fulltime and avoid paying for their sick / holiday pay and pensions....

the assets thing: it depends if you've already claimed the total amount in previous tax years already.... then you get into 'balances' n 'depreciation' and all that complicated stuff that I have no idea about.... :eek:
Click to expand...
No he's only ever claimed the repayments. It'll be another 6 years before he's paid it off. It shouldn't be sooooohard. Blah. I've got dyscaculia (sp) and I'm moderately dyslexic so it's a fekking nightmare.
 
editor said:
Could some kind soul explain how the chuffin' 'eck I calculate my living expenses?

I've totalled up my rent, council tax, leccy and utilities bills (I work exclusively from home).

To make things easy, let's say that this lot adds up to £1,000. How do I work out how much I can claim?

(editor goes back to wailing at the moon and banging head against desk in frustration)
Click to expand...

My accountant advised me approx four years ago so im not sure if anything has changed now but......

When I worked from home I divided my bills up into thirds as thats how much of my home I used for the business in terms of time in and room space, electricity and gas energy consumption etc per day.

It worked for me

Hope this helps you Ed
 
chieftain said:
My accountant advised me approx four years ago so im not sure if anything has changed now but......

When I worked from home I divided my bills up into thirds as thats how much of my home I used for the business in terms of time in and room space, electricity and gas energy consumption etc per day.

It worked for me

Hope this helps you Ed
Click to expand...

Its still the same - did our tax return back in June and this was the case then.
 
Right. That's sorted then.

Now where do I input my student loan repayments? There's a section on the form but it bangs on about being an 'income related student loan'. What's that mean then?!
 
editor said:
Right. That's sorted then.

Now where do I input my student loan repayments? There's a section on the form but it bangs on about being an 'income related student loan'. What's that mean then?!
Click to expand...

I put them in as standard loan repayments and bunged it in the credit card, overdraft, bank loan repayments pile
 
I think you're sorted on this one, but I asked a friend (a tax specialist no less) and this is what they told me:

there is no simple answer - come on its tax!!! Assuming he is self employed he needs to estimate how much of these expenses relate "wholly and exclusively" to him working from home. For example if he has a dedicated room as a study then an appropriate way to do it would be to for example take the utilities bills and divide them by the total no of rooms in the house and then multiply by 1 re the study. Another way to do it would be if he hasnt always worked from home to compare the bills for one year to the bills for the year when he did work at home. Allow say 4% increase for inflation / increases in rates etc and then it would be reasonable to assume that the diff relates to him working from home.

Basically its self assessment so you can claim for as much as you think is right but when the IR enquire you need to be able to show that you followed the basic principles ("wholly and exclusively") and that you made reasonable assumptions.

This is exactly the type of return they are likely to enquire into as well cos estimations have to be used. Remember you have to keep records for 6 yrs and if the IR enquire and go back that far and decide you underpaid tax you will then have the underpaid tax to pay plus interest (plus penalites if they think you made fraudulent claims)

Going back to the W&E thing you need to be careful what you claim. For example, im not sure re the rent or council tax as they do not relate wholly and exlusively to working from home as you would pay them whatever - whether you worked from home or not. However, a proportion of them may be allowable but i would need to spend some time looking into it - of which i dont have any spare today am afraid......could take a look over the w/e.....

Finally, i believe in some cases the taxpayers agrees a relevant % to apply with the IR in advance.....

Appreciate that doesnt help that much - recommend looking on the IR website which is a very good source of information....
Click to expand...
:)
 
So. I've finished my tax return. I press 'send'. And wait. And wait.

It's now been seven hours since I tried to upload my details but the shitty site is totally shafted. And that £100 fine grows closer.

Grrrr!
 
Be careful about declaring rooms for business. Sometimes the local council can get very funny and charge "Business" tax rates on that room you are using for business.
 
layabout said:
Be careful about declaring rooms for business. Sometimes the local council can get very funny and charge "Business" tax rates on that room you are using for business.
Click to expand...

agree with this warning ed - same advice was given to me. i work from home to and used to claim back 25% of rent, council tax and fuel bills (given 4 rooms in home) + 80% of phone/internet - but now limit this to bills after warning from friend who does accounts for many folk in a similar situation. The local council could screw you with the 'business rates' threat. Having said that I haven't had any problem with this for the past 5 years.
 
pinkmonkey said:
"its hard to make a living out of that these days - its all gone to India"
Click to expand...

with respect - this "it's all gone to india" arguement sounds a load of old toss. i think a lot of people doing graphic design still try and charge the outrageous prices they did when few people had the skills and equipment a decade or so ago (..OK, I admit i still do when i can get away with it and the customer can afford it...). Nowadays every tom, dick and harriet chancer with a computer claims they can do the job - and cheaper - so there is a glut of people competing for the work - you just have to lower prices slightly - and/or be good at what you do to keep earning a living and keeping customers. its got nothing to do with India or any where else. just my opinion...
 
Bumped for all those also suffering tax form hell 2006-style!

(please read the whole thread before contributing)
 
I know if you work from home you can claim a % of your computer costs, printers desk, room space for use as an office, anything really that you use to do your job ( as long as you can justify it, you may be asked to prove it ).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

ATOMIC SUPLEX
Making Tax Digital
2
Replies
47
Views
1K
danski
danski
Thora
Careers advice for young people
2 3 4
Replies
111
Views
4K
cesare
cesare
A
Alternative perks to maternity/paternity for non-parent employees? Sabbatical?
2 3 4 5 6
Replies
174
Views
2K
Dystopiary
Dystopiary
A
Have you taken a sabbatical from your job?
Replies
13
Views
220
weltweit
weltweit
muvva
Job offer advice please
Replies
18
Views
609
MickiQ
MickiQ
Back
Top Bottom