From: usenet@isbd.co.uk
Newsgroups: uk.business.accountancy uk.finance
Subject: Re: Eligible cleaning costs?
Date: 20 May 2004 08:53:07 GMT

In uk.finance Simon  wrote:
> 
> Where you do not have a room that is set aside for exclusive business use,
> you are looking at a proportion of the room or rooms that are used for
> business purposes and any bill that is greater because of the business
> activity could certainly be demonstrated to have a business element.
> 
> This can happen for gas and electricity bills, itemised telephone calls but
> others will not, such as rent, TV licence, council tax and anything else
> that has a fixed charge and is not exclusively for the business use.
> 
> Although the bottom line here is even if it is not strictly correct, if you
> are not greedy, you will probably not be asked to explain yourself.
> 
I was a computer contractor for many years and worked (as is normal)
through a Ltd. company.  My wife also does freelance work and uses the
company too.

In this situation it's quite easy to charge things as expenses to the
company, it doesn't appear on our personal tax returns as a claim for
use of the house as a business expense.

However we don't charge any cleaning or anything like that to the
company, on the other hand we're not too strict about making sure that
company sellotape is only used for company use.  We do split phone
usage by having a separate line for the company.

I think the IR (as I said) have a set of norms for a small business
and as long as you are close to these norms they leave you alone.
We lose a bit by not charging cleaning expenses etc. to the company
but we gain a bit by using their sellotape (etc.).

-- 
Chris Green