Legitimate expense for Offshore Engineers?

[Lorne]

Hello All,

I've been a contractor for 25 years now in the oil & gas industry. Recently I turned my hobby of building chronographs into a new sideline and set up a seperate company so that I can do it all properly.

The chronograph I build and sell is called the OFFSHORE Professional Field Engineer. It's the result of many years tinkering and breaking watches in my day job to finally come up with a fully engineered chronograph that actually stands up to the daily treatment I give it. Because of this I consider it as a suitable timekeeping tool for my trade.

The question I have is would it be an acceptable expense for other Engineers? By which I mean, if another contractor buys one can he set it off as a legitimate business expense?

[eek]

I don't know but personally I doubt it.

Either way it looks nice and this review is good. I do like this comment from the review

While some may bristle at that last remark, I think it showcases the sort of no-nonsense engineering that has gone into this watch.

Any chance of a discount?

[JamJarST]

Surely this is spam?

[northernladuk]

Is a watch wholly and exclusively for the business?? Is it safety wear? You would have to have a pretty exceptional situation to be able to answer yes to either of those so I would also say no personally.

[simondolan]

No. Nice job though

Hello All,

I've been a contractor for 25 years now in the oil & gas industry. Recently I turned my hobby of building chronographs into a new sideline and set up a seperate company so that I can do it all properly.

The chronograph I build and sell is called the OFFSHORE Professional Field Engineer. It's the result of many years tinkering and breaking watches in my day job to finally come up with a fully engineered chronograph that actually stands up to the daily treatment I give it. Because of this I consider it as a suitable timekeeping tool for my trade.

The question I have is would it be an acceptable expense for other Engineers? By which I mean, if another contractor buys one can he set it off as a legitimate business expense?

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

Definitely not a legitimate expense but it looks fab

[Lorne]

I don't know but personally I doubt it.

Either way it looks nice and this review is good. I do like this comment from the review



Any chance of a discount?

If you really would like a discount then you can always send me an email.

And, of course it's NOT spam! I've been a contractor for 25 years now, so I've come across one or two seriously good business expenses. In fact I've been a contractor so long I even remember when it was the in thing to register your company as a church - something to do with charitable status tax dodges.

The Reverend Lorne of the Church of Classic Chronographs

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

That's as nice a new watch as I've seen in a long time. Very nice, indeed.

Not a valid business expense though.

[Lorne]

I was thinking that since it has a chronograph (stopwatch) built into it, and a stopwatch is pretty much essential offshore, for example for timing pipelay welding passes, then it should count as the sort of thing someone could possibly buy solely for business use.

The fact that someone might spend almost £1500 on a stopwatch is purely a matter of how they run their business.

[NotAllThere]

Well, it smelled a bit like spam - signing up just to promote your product. But closer inspection and it seems to be crispy bacon. Yum.

I was thinking that since it has a chronograph (stopwatch) built into it, and a stopwatch is pretty much essential offshore, for example for timing pipelay welding passes, then it should count as the sort of thing someone could possibly buy solely for business use.

The fact that someone might spend almost £1500 on a stopwatch is purely a matter of how they run their business.

I recall once a painter bought an industrial washing machine for his overalls - a normal washing machine wouldn't do the job. When inspected he was asked "do you use it for personal stuff?". "No - just for the overalls". "Good" says the inspector "because if you had it wouldn't have been allowable".

So, in my view, and IANAC or a tax inspector, if you are someone who needs to time pipelay welding passes (Whatever they are), then so long as you never use it to actually tell the time except on business, it'll be allowable.