claiming expenses

[silverfox1060]

Hi just wondering if i could claim expenses on my soon to be business premises which is owned by my soon to be partner. The amount i will pay in rent will be equvivlent to half of the monthly mortgage payment.

[Brown and Boris]

silverfox1060 said:

Hi just wondering if i could claim expenses on my soon to be business premises which is owned by my soon to be partner. The amount i will pay in rent will be equvivlent to half of the monthly mortgage payment.

I think the HMRC phrase oft banded about here is wholly and necesarily (or is it wholly and exclusively?). Anyway, HMRC are Ok with claiming proportioned expenses (heating, lighting and even council tax sometimes) on the proportion of the house the business solely uses. I don't think you can have a back bedroom from where you run the business taking 10% of the house space and claim 50% of the rent back. Also anything the partner takes in rent the HMRC will be after as income unless exempt (the rent a room scheme doesn't extend to business use) and it may create issues around them wanting to tax any raise in value on that proportion of the house if you cl;aim rent.

I worked out what the floor area was as a proportion of the whole house, and then added a useage figure (e.g. the offices are used 12-14 hours a day where as the house is only heated and lit for an hour in the morning and between 5pm and 11pm weekdays and at weekends.

In a word, don't mess with HMRC on this one as they have seen it all before! Be reasonable and have a sensible rationale for what you claim.