Charlie Bavington wrote:
formeracctus wrote:
Finally, for future reference, all of the rent we paid in Spain came out of my partner's account, as I did not have a Spanish bank account (we are not married, just cohabiting) - theoretically, would it still be OK to claim this as an expense?
Did you pay any money towards this rent (i.e. reimburse your partner)? If not, then I would say no, since you haven't incurred a business expense. If so, then potentially yes, but again, whether you bother probably depends to an extent to the sums involved (i.e. the tax saved) versus the cost of proving it if ever called upon to do so. With profit (do you mean "profit", since you're still at the stage of determining your costs....?) of around £1,000, I'm inclined to the supposition (always a risky business
) that the tax savings are not likely to be that great, and it's probably not worth bothering, simply because it will not make an iota of difference (are you likely to reach the personal income tax threshold for 2012-13?).
[Edited at 2013-12-09 19:29 GMT]
Yes, but I paid it in cash.
The thing is that I am over the personal income tax threshold because of my day job and from what I can see, what I claim (or don't claim) in expenses for the self-employed work will make a significant difference to the tax refund I get. In reality, I made a loss last tax year, because I what I paid out for the office rent is actually more than what I made from translating, so I should be due a higher refund, but unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to prove that. I think you're right - the hassle and stress of having to prove the expenses isn't worth extra bit of refund. I'm now in a much more 'normal' situation (rent payments to my partner are via online banking and can easily be proven and we have a flat to ourselves now so less complication calculations), so hopefully all/most of this hassle will be avoided next year!
Login to reply/comment 
