hi everyone hope you are enjoying the long weekend although I suspect that like me a lot of you are working!
Quick question about mileage claims, if I am working on site at a client and I travel there and back from my home office. I don't go every week, sometimes its for 1 day and sometimes more i.e. its agreed weekly between me and the client depending on workload. When I started it was to be until May but now looks like it will be ongoing. Can I claim keep claiming the mileage from my business?
As you are travelling to the clients site you will still be able to claim the mileage allowance, if you are doing a lot of mileage remember that if you do over 10,000 miles the rate goes down to 25p per mile.
Regards,
Richard Spicer
This is just my personal opinion. Advice should be sought from a suitably qualified person
It actually depends on the relationship with the client.
If this is really the equivalent of employment one or two days a week with no specified end date then it would not be allowable at all if more than 40% of your chargeable time is with that client.
If there is a specified end date within two years then it would be allowable regardless as to the 40% rule (This is called the 24 month rule).
Remember it is not a percentage of the week but a percentage of your charged time to be considered.
If you want to look this up and follow through the examples, start with EIM32080 and work out from there.
Once you've had a read post any follow up questions and we'll field them as best we can,
kind regards,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
It is my understanding that EIM32080 only applies to employees; as a self-employed bookkeeper it is not necessary for you to meet these conditions to claim mileage.
I think this is far from straightforward ever since Samadian. The ruling appears to be if the visits are itinerant then yes go ahead and claim but as soon as they become habitual then they are not deductible even if you have a recognised home office. The 24 month rule would be great if the self employed could use it but currently that's not an option. I have a lot of CIS subbies who are going to have to provide mileage logs from now on but that just isn't going to happen and if they don't get their usual rebate there will be blood spilt in my offices...so if you don't hear from me again you'll know why!
Rob, having done some reading I was thinking along the same lines. I think that now that what was meant to be a short term contract until May has turned longer term, I will no longer claim the mileage.
A pragmatic view might be to make the claim for now until we know quite how the ruling will be enforced and perhaps put a bit aside in case there is any retrospective tax to pay
I think it is unlikely that the Samadian case can be applied to a bookkeepers situation or to a sub-contractor as the circumstances are very different.
In the Samadian case the Doctor who is self-employed and working for the NHS works privately at home and privately in two hospitals seeing out-patients. The patients are coming to the place the Doctor is working from, the hospital. In the case of a bookkeeper, he or she is visiting a clients office atthe request of the client; a very different relationship.
Regards,
Richard Spicer
This is just my personal opinion. Advice should be sought from a suitably qualified person
You may be correct Richard but I see this as the as a way to push through legislation from Newsom v Robertson where the decision to disallow the travel expenses of a barrister was based on the fact that he could work from home wherever he lived, but he incurred the travel expenses he did because for personal reasons chose to live where he did. That's not a big jump from barrister to other professionals and differentiates N v R from the more itinerant Horton v Young. But I hope you are right!
In the Samadian case the Doctor who is self-employed and working for the NHS works privately at home and privately in two hospitals seeing out-patients.
I may be wrong, but I think that this is where the Samadian case fell down. Dr Samadian didnt do any work seeing patients at home. He did keep his accounting records and make business calls at home but didnt see any patients there. If he had then he may have been able to argue that all travel was business related.
On that basis I think that bookkeepers could well fall under the same interpretation ie going to see customers at the same location on a regular basis.
Been reading a lot about the Samadian case and mileage claims as it's probably one of my biggest expense claims. I work from home and visit majority of my clients at their premises but still do some work from home for them too.
I don't have public liability insurance as no-one was coming to my home office but have just taken on a new client who doesn't have premises and was debating where to meet to go through my many questions about the information provided so far. I don't really want many people coming to my home but as it will cost under £20 to upgrade my PII to include public liability so think it will definitely be worth it given Mark's comments about the Samadian case.
