home office allowance

[Antimus]

So I've been contracting since September 2013, working from home often, running a server and NAS at home full time to work, but despite asking what I could claim, my accountant never told me about the home use allowance of £4/day, so I'm going to start claiming this now.
I just want to know am I able to claim it all the way back to Sept '13 or will I have to limit it to this tax year's use of home?
Thanks

[northernladuk]

Why didn't you ask your accountant at the time?

For the 208 quid or whatever it is I'd stick it in last year if you haven't done the paperwork, stick it in this year and then go do something more worthwhile with my time like picking up receipts outside Starbucks.

I'd spend more time looking for a new accountant than worry about this TBH.

[CloudWalker]

Working at home
You may be able to get tax back for some of the bills you have to pay because you have to work at home on a regular basis.

You can only claim for things to do with your work, eg business telephone calls or the extra cost of gas and electricity for your work area.

You can’t claim for things that you use for both private and business use, eg rent or broadband access.

You don’t need to provide records for claims of up to £4 per week (£18 per month). For claims over £4 per week you’ll need to provide evidence of what you’ve spent.

[MrMarkyMark]

For the 208 quid or whatever it is I'd stick it in last year if you haven't done the paperwork, stick it in this year

+1, if paperwork for last year is not done.

FTFY

then go do something more worthwhile with my time like begging for change outside Starbucks.

[jamesbrown]

It's either £4*52=£208 per year or £18*12=£216 per year (or a bird's nest calculation that won't get you any more in 99% of cases). Take your pick

[TheFaQQer]

I claim mine when my accountant says at the end of the year "you messed that up, you owe £100 to the company"

[Michael at BI Accountancy]

Be sure to check that your accountant is not putting through the allowance (that you have missed) to your DLA. This should be pretty standard for any accountant to be picking up on when preparing your accounts!

[Boo]

Working at home
You may be able to get tax back for some of the bills you have to pay because you have to work at home on a regular basis.

You can only claim for things to do with your work, eg business telephone calls or the extra cost of gas and electricity for your work area.

You can’t claim for things that you use for both private and business use, eg rent or broadband access.

You can claim on a proportion of the rent / mortgage interest on your home and I do this on the basis of 1 room of 4 (excluding bathrooms, kitchens and halls) == 25% multiplied by the proportion of the year I worked from home eg 6 months == 50% etc.

There's a list of what is allowable here : BIM47820 - Specific deductions: use of home: specific expenses

I specifically claim mortgage interest, council tax, gas, water and electricity.

Boo

[Antimus]

I don't really need those kind of specifics, I don't want to be counting kwh used for business or personal, I just know that as a ltd company contractor I can claim £4/day without providing evidence, yes I can claim more with evidence but I don't want to do that, I only want to know how far back I can claim that given that the business opened shop in Sept '13

[VectraMan]

I don't really need those kind of specifics, I don't want to be counting kwh used for business or personal, I just know that as a ltd company contractor I can claim £4/day without providing evidence, yes I can claim more with evidence but I don't want to do that, I only want to know how far back I can claim that given that the business opened shop in Sept '13

BIM75010 - Simplified expenses: use of home for business purposes

£26pm. Or £1.23 per day (assuming 21 days per month). And like all expenses you're only really saving 20% of that, so 25p per day. Don't think I can be bothered.

I would think you can't personally go back beyond the current tax year without creating issues over P11D etc., and that YourCo can't go back beyond the year end, certainly not if you've done the year end accounts. So it's whichever is most recent. Correct me if I'm wrong.