Expenses Out of Contract

[ladymuck]

It is complete and utter tosh.

There is some personal use allowed of company PC's (just think of all the permies who do their dildo shopping while at work) similar to how mobile phones are allowed. Would your accountant not allow you to charge your mobile costs even though you need one as much as a PC in order for your company to procure new work?

He's an idiot and I'd be tempted to report him to whatever professional body he's a member of.

[Chart Accountancy]

I wish...

Conversation was basically:

Me: My old PC is on its last legs. I'm getting a new one.
Acct: OK, I see your contract is finished. What client are you working at now?
Me: I'm currently looking for a new one.
Acct: If you're not trading then HMRC won't allow this as an expense.
Me: I am trading - I just don't have a customer right now. Anyway, I'm not buying it for a client. It's for operating my own company.
Acct: Then you can't expense it. You'll have to buy it privately now and then expense it later once you have a client.
Me: What???!!! It's for my company. It's not for a client. Why does my unknown next client have any interest in my company PC?
Acct: Just Because(*)

(*) Or some other meaninglessness

I'm thinking of getting my next door neighbour as a "client" and charge him £2 to set up his Netflix account. Then I can ask my accountant to expense my PC against it

Or, perhaps more sensibly, change accountants....

The above conversation would have had a small degree of relevance only if your company was dormant and you were to buy the PC during a year where you want to keep the company dormant. You could have then made the purchase personally and claimed the expense as a pre-trading expense when you reinstated your trading. However, whilst you have not achieved dormant status and you are in fact trading by actively looking for new business does not justify the response from your accountant.

[PerfectStorm]

If you're not trading then see how they feel about pausing accountancy fees until you are. You'll suddenly find you're an active and solvent business then.

[Lance]

The above conversation would have had a small degree of relevance only if your company was dormant and you were to buy the PC during a year where you want to keep the company dormant. You could have then made the purchase personally and claimed the expense as a pre-trading expense when you reinstated your trading. However, whilst you have not achieved dormant status and you are in fact trading by actively looking for new business does not justify the response from your accountant.

unless of course there's not enough profit in the company to cover the expense.