Sole Trader Allowable Expenses

happyout

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I'm wondering about expenses that are partly for work/partly for business. House phone/internet/heat/electricity etc.. What percentage is acceptable and how do you record it on your accounts?
I'm a very sole trader with a very small turnover but I need to allow something as I work from home office.

Also- I started trading in 2014, can I submit some receipts for 2013? Think I read that somewhere before
 
No general rules of thumb - it is fact based. Heat could be done on square metes used over total, same for heat. Phone/internet depends on usage. Would you have a phone if you didn't have a business. If not then I'd take a deduction for the entire amount and perhaps disallow a small amount for personal usage.

Two ways of taking deduction - put the full amount into your P&L and disallow relevant part in the tax computation or just put in the relevant part in the profit and loss and make no adjustment.

You can claim pre-commencement expenditure - it can be used to reduce your taxable profit in 2014. The relevant provision is section 82 TCA and you may find a reference to this on a Form 11.
 
As a bit of advice, if you are claiming to have a home-office. Don't claim for an exact proportion based on floor-space - Dublin66 does have the right idea but you should then restrict it again by perhaps 1/2.

Heat can be done on square metres over total - but you need to further account for the hours per day as a % of total day. Eg if you had a 700sq m home and used 100sq m for your work and worked 50% of all available hours and your bill came to 1,000EUROS, then 100/700*50% = total tax deduction.

Why is this latter 50% apportionment important? CGT on your PPR is denied to portions of your home used exclusively for business. Claiming a % for the entire 'space' would add to the Revenue's argument in event of a dispute. (There are other ways around this too - putting the space to other uses in the evenings)
 
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