1 bed flat home office deductions

1 bed flat home office deductions

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Please can you help me!

I am working from home as a sole trader earning £42k pa and living in a 1 bed flat (about 50 sq metres) with my girlfriend paying total rent of £1500 a month. I work for approximately 12 hours a day 5 or 6 days a week using the combined living room/kitchen (about 30 sq metres) as an office. I am the only one using it during this time.

My question is: how much can I claim back?!

Any guidance you could give would be much appreciated.

Thanks and kind regards,

Marc

Replies (3)

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By Sheepy306
03rd May 2012 08:13

I expect you'll get numerous differing replies but................depending upon your attitude towards such a claim I would suggest either:

 

1) 30/50 = 60%, therefore 60% of £1,500 per month. It is likely that your 'office' (e.g.paperwork, computer, files etc) remains in the combined living/kitchen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and accordingly no deduction for this should be made. Or,

 

2) As you 'only' work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week you should reduce it down by 50% on 6 days of the week and 100% on day 7.

 

If you can realistically calculate the living room space separate to the kitchen space then that would probably be better and strengthens your argument should an HMRC inspector investigate, so perhaps office space will fall to 40%?

 

Personally I would go for option 1, but also include council tax, water, electric, gas, insurance into the rent figure, as well as any specific repairs to that office area (unlikely to be much as you're renting). The resulting amount will seem rather high, especially as in the Midlands you can probably rent a small office space for about £500 per month (excluding rates), but then I'm assuming if you're paying £1,500 per month for a 1 bed flat you must be in London !!

 

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By JCresswellTax
03rd May 2012 09:01

Wouldn't disagree

With anything Sheepy suggests - but I would probably look at option 2 on the basis that option 1 will probably be very high and could result in some questioning by HMRC.

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By sijolees
03rd May 2012 13:26

You must apportion

I disagree with the first method proposed - you should be looking to claim costs only for the time that the room/area is used exclusively for business. Where there is non-business use of the sitting room/kitchen it should not be claimed as a deduction - is it really realistic to say this area is used exclusively for business for 12 hours a day?

And you should claim for the costs you bear only. If you pay half the rent and bills that should be your starting point not the whole £1500.

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