Expenses

[alitech]

Hi there everyone

Apologies if this question has been asked to death, I imagine so anyway but I wanted to get a view on a few things if thats ok.

I have joined a company as an IT contractor and it now a month in. I have an accountant, a registered ltd company and also VAT registered and bank account, all within a few weeks. I am new, so have noob questions. Sorry

1. I am working from 2 different locations in London. Can I claim travel and subsistence as expenses with my LTD company?
2. Is there any sort of insurance that I can expense? Life insurance, illness cover?
3. Can I expense IPSE membership?
4. I plan to buy a bluetooth headset and a laptop for my work as I need to carry around very heavy equipment otherwise, can these be claimed as expenses?

What other expenses do you claim and what should I be considering?


Thanks in advance.

[northernladyuk]

Hi there everyone

Apologies if this question has been asked to death, I imagine so anyway but I wanted to get a view on a few things if thats ok.

I have joined a company as an IT contractor and it now a month in. I have an accountant, a registered ltd company and also VAT registered and bank account, all within a few weeks. I am new, so have noob questions. Sorry

1. I am working from 2 different locations in London. Can I claim travel and subsistence as expenses with my LTD company?
2. Is there any sort of insurance that I can expense? Life insurance, illness cover?
3. Can I expense IPSE membership?
4. I plan to buy a bluetooth headset and a laptop for my work as I need to carry around very heavy equipment otherwise, can these be claimed as expenses?

What other expenses do you claim and what should I be considering?


Thanks in advance.

Best advice is to post your question in the Accounting / Legal forum. Second best advice is to claim for gladiators, chutney spoons and getting your radiators bled.

[cojak]

Best advice is to post your question in the Accounting / Legal forum. Second best advice is to claim for gladiators, chutney spoons and getting your radiators bled.

I moved it as soon as I approved it but you beat me to the post NladyUK..

[stek]

Is it a Public Sector client?

[Louisa@AardvarkAccounting]

1. I am working from 2 different locations in London. Can I claim travel and subsistence as expenses with my LTD company?
2. Is there any sort of insurance that I can expense? Life insurance, illness cover?
3. Can I expense IPSE membership?
4. I plan to buy a bluetooth headset and a laptop for my work as I need to carry around very heavy equipment otherwise, can these be claimed as expenses?

1 - Most likely yes. If they are temporary workplaces. But need to consider IR35 status/public sector.

2 - PI, PL, EL - all allowable through business. Life insurance and illness cover can be paid but it's likely BIK implications will apply to you. There are some policies such as death in service/relevant life that don't have BIK implications. But you should discuss this with an IFA to get clarification.

3 - Yes, you can expense this. But this is not usually allowable for corporation tax relief.

4 - Yes, providing these are for business use, you can go ahead and claim these. Depending on if you are on the FRS scheme, spend more than £2K and you can reclaim the VAT.

As for general advice on expenses, you should check out a lot of the blogs/guides online and chat to your accountant, as they can go through your circumstances with you.

[Patrick@Intouch]

1. In order for these locations to count as temporary for travel and subsistence purposes you would need to have been travelling to them for less than 24 months and the time that you spend at that client site would need to represent less than 40% of your working week.

2. Agreed with Louisa.

3. If the IPSE membership is in your name then it would not be allowable and may generate a taxable benefit in kind but if the subscription is in the company's name then the benefit in kind may not apply.

4. Of course, you will need to be aware of the changes to the FRS coming in April.

[MrMarkyMark]

Hi there everyone

Apologies if this question has been asked to death, I imagine so anyway but I wanted to get a view on a few things if thats ok.

I have joined a company as an IT contractor and it now a month in. I have an accountant, a registered ltd company and also VAT registered and bank account, all within a few weeks. I am new, so have noob questions. Sorry

1. I am working from 2 different locations in London. Can I claim travel and subsistence as expenses with my LTD company?
2. Is there any sort of insurance that I can expense? Life insurance, illness cover?
3. Can I expense IPSE membership?
4. I plan to buy a bluetooth headset and a laptop for my work as I need to carry around very heavy equipment otherwise, can these be claimed as expenses?

What other expenses do you claim and what should I be considering?


Thanks in advance.

I'll give you a clue, who do you think is best placed and qualified to answer your questions

[northernladuk]

If these is the level you are at you are going to have a raft of further questions you will need answers for.

Your first step is to read the Newbie Guides found on the right -->
In the other links you will find plenty of information about expenses so have a look at those first
Your accountant should have given you some information on expenses as well so have a look at that.

Don't be afraid to pick up the phone and speak to your accountant. You are paying them for their services which includes advice so gather your questions and then have a chat with them. The problem with accounting by internet forum is you won't get the full picture. You get some quick yes and no's but that is often not the whole picture. For example Louisa says 'most likely yes' to travel but it's highly dependant on the 24 month rule.. What's that you ask.. It's in the links to the right and is complicated. Your accountant can clarify for you fairly quickly.

Another useful tool you need to use is the search function. You are absolutely right, those questions are done to death and not everyone appreciates putting their time in to help someone that's not done a bit of research first. The best method to search the forums is described in the link below
http://forums.contractoruk.com/welco...uk-forums.html

So if you want to know about expensing IPSE you would use
expense ipse site:forums.contractoruk.com
and get a couple of thousand interesting threads
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ex...ntractoruk.com

Some areas you might want to spend some time on besides expenses are IR35 and maybe the 24 month rule.

Once you've been through the basics and got a grasp then I am sure we'd be happy to help with some of the more in depth questions you might have.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

1. In order for these locations to count as temporary for travel and subsistence purposes you would need to have been travelling to them for less than 24 months and the time that you spend at that client site would need to represent less than 40% of your working week.

It might just be the way you've worded it but the 40% thing isn't right - you've made it sound like you have to spend less than 40% of your time on site for it to be considered temporary. The rule is: if you spend less than 40% of your time on-site then then it counts as a temporary workplace and there is no time limit on how long you can claim travel/subsistence. If you spend more than 40% of your time on site, then you have to consider the 24 month rule and there is a time limit on how long you can claim.

3. If the IPSE membership is in your name then it would not be allowable and may generate a taxable benefit in kind but if the subscription is in the company's name then the benefit in kind may not apply.

But as Louisa says, even if no BIK implications, its not deductible for corporation tax, because reasons.

[kaiser78]

Hi there everyone

Apologies if this question has been asked to death, I imagine so anyway but I wanted to get a view on a few things if thats ok.

I have joined a company as an IT contractor and it now a month in. I have an accountant, a registered ltd company and also VAT registered and bank account, all within a few weeks. I am new, so have noob questions. Sorry

1. I am working from 2 different locations in London. Can I claim travel and subsistence as expenses with my LTD company?
2. Is there any sort of insurance that I can expense? Life insurance, illness cover?
3. Can I expense IPSE membership?
4. I plan to buy a bluetooth headset and a laptop for my work as I need to carry around very heavy equipment otherwise, can these be claimed as expenses?

What other expenses do you claim and what should I be considering?


Thanks in advance.

Start making your accountant work for their fees...all qs point to them...