Losing Plumbing Jobs To Cut-Throat Quotes From Competition

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Anything you claim against Tax has to be a legitimate business expense.

Travelling from home to your permanent place of work is not a business expense. Most self employed people use their home as their office, so any work related travel is a legitimate business expense.

When I worked for local government, many years ago now, I could claim "mileage allowance", about 5p a mile, for work journeys to different offices. The journey from home to my own office was not claimable. If I went from there to a branch office and back it was claimable. If I went from home to a branch office, I could claim for the excess mileage over my normal home to office journey. But the mileage from the branch office to my main office was claimable.

Complicated, yes, but that's Inland Revenue for you.
 
Anything you claim against Tax has to be a legitimate business expense.

yeah right ;)

when my tax accountant did my tax returns, he claimed for everything that he could for me..

laundry expense, mother as a secretary since she answered the phones when I was at work ( the fact that none of the calls were ever for me didn't seem to bother him ), computer equipment and depreciation, depreciation on the car, advertisement in the local paper that never happened, rent on the "office space" which was a desk in the corner of my room, internet connection which was mainly for playing games ( did I mention I was 21 and still living at home whe I was last self employed? ).
 
Anything you claim against Tax has to be a legitimate business expense.

yeah right ;)

when my tax accountant did my tax returns, he claimed for everything that he could for me..

laundry expense, mother as a secretary since she answered the phones when I was at work ( the fact that none of the calls were ever for me didn't seem to bother him ), computer equipment and depreciation, depreciation on the car, advertisement in the local paper that never happened, rent on the "office space" which was a desk in the corner of my room, internet connection which was mainly for playing games ( did I mention I was 21 and still living at home whe I was last self employed? ).


had you been investigated by the taxman you wouldn't be thanking your accountant then.
 
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had you been investigated by the taxman you wouldn't be thanking your accountant then.

Yes exactly I grew out of my bokkeeping clerk when I went vat registered so he referred me to a chartered. But the previous clerk as the ex chief IR investigator for the district in his previous job used to keep my books really tight, knowing how the tax man thinks he acted for me more like one of them. I used to feel it gave me a raw deal but then when I met an electrician who because he had sloppy books they went back to a year past 7 years agi picked on it and stung him for a whole load of extra tax. He said "you can't go back that far" answer was "oh yes we can" to which he retorted "you'll break me" to which there answer was "no we won't we've worked it out, you can afford it". My inside man said basically they look at what you have and aim to get it, and generally do.

Much better to pay more tax than you are comfortable with than loose everything you have saved for your retirement, which was what he lost probably 50g's. Let other people claim for their personal hifi (because it's for entertaining customers" and all those other things dodgy accountants "allow". They may have great claims in the pub of what they get away with but tax man will bide his time and when they can see a decent pot of money worth going for they will reel you in!

The main reason I went contracting was because I wasn't able to earn what the tax man expects me to earn. I either had to go and earn it or give up, because tax man will bill you for it and he usually gets some of what he asks for if not all. The stupid public perception driven by the media that we are on a fortune influences the thinking of the gulable individuals who decide whether our tax return is believable or not. As they are as human as the rest of the public we see on here believing the media lies about us. We are forced to earn it or go get a job selling petrol or stacking shelves.
 
so what you're saying is that you HAVE to charge £30/hr because that's what people THINK you will charge, and as a result the TAXMAN thinks your fiddling your tax return because it's a lot lighter that he thinks it should be?

great, lets spread the word that you should only be getting £9/hr, the taxman will leave you alone and you can drop your prices.. ;)
 
lol £30 an hour i charge £50, and thats still not enough with everything i have to do, i either need to work more (Which costs money due to advertising) or charge more, you have no real understanding of how to run a business!
 
I might point out that this is also a regional argument..
whilst those of you in the london or surrounding area may consider £900 / 4 days about right, it's going to be high for other areas..
since the OP is in devon then the high prices of the SE wouldn't apply..
 
so what you're saying is that you HAVE to charge £30/hr because that's what people THINK you will charge, and as a result the TAXMAN thinks your fiddling your tax return because it's a lot lighter that he thinks it should be?
HMRC have ranges of expected earnings for all trades and professions; fall below these as a company/sole practitioner/partnership and it's likely that you will have them on your case, to make sure that you're not on the fiddle.
 
Ahem

Van £14000 (Over a 3 year period 4666.667 per year) not including finance

Van insurance £1000

Public Liabilty £1000

Tool and equipment + recalibration and wear and tear £800.00

Accountant (chartered) £450

Advertising £2000.00

Admin £1500.

Time wasted on phone ... Infinity....

Registrations and professional development £6 - 900 per year


To name but a few...

Sick pay £0

Holiday Pay £0

Redundancy £0

Job satisfaction 100% but doesn't pay my bills.

Don't knock a regular income or company pension and don't knock what you haven't experienced.

As for Cjob

Your not in a profession now, co's you have to be professional
 
Buy a cheaper van then if your struggling for work ie having to spend 2 grand on advertising why have a mill stone around your neck
 
Buy a cheaper van then if your struggling for work ie having to spend 2 grand on advertising why have a mill stone around your neck
Depends on what the 2 grand in advertising brings in. Do you know how effective/profitable any of your advertising is? Otherwise a mere 500 on adv. could be a mill stone too
 
Surely if you are using your own car to carry out work for your Employer you can claim mileage - at a rate of 40p up to 10k miles (HMRC figures).

So the employed get an allowance for using their car for business purposes - the self-employed can off-set their vehicle against tax. That sounds pretty even to me - there will be some winners and losers depending on mileage and vehicle, but everyone is catered for.

So all we're arguing about is the cost to drive to and from a place of work and non-business use. Well I was advised that it was a bad idea to claim 100% of may van's costs as there would be times when I use it for non-business trips (as there are) - so I claim for 90%.

Therefore just like an employed person any personal mileage that I do in my vehicle is paid for out of my net pay.
 
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