Sole Trader - How do I account for electricity used for EV?

T

tinymouse

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I have a part time self employed job which involves some driving. Which I account for in my tax return. I don't use an accountant, as the sums involved in my business are quite modest. And until now, very easy to account for.
Had a petrol car, and it was very easy to account for fuel expenses - Add up receipts and apportion business/personal use and there's my expenditure.

Now I have an EV, and I'm scratching my head. Because it's now just added to my electrical bill.

This has two complications.

1. The car's app does not accurately track the number of Kilowatts used to charge it. I charged it there last week from 30 to 95%. This charging session is not shown on the app. So I can't rely on that. It's not a smart charger. So I've no data from that.

2. The electricity price is different at different times of the day. I don't always charge it overnight.

I'm thinking the solution would be to use the car's odometer, and the published efficiency figures to get a rough estimate of KWs used.
Deduct public charging, which I calculate separately, and is much more straightforward.
Then multiply the KWs by the average electricity unit price across the course of the day? And appotion business/personal use as before.

Would that be more or less acceptable to revenue? Has there been any guidance on this?
 
Who owns the car - yourself or the business?

Can you not just pay yourself the revenue mileage allowances for business use, based on kms travelled and take that tax free?
 
Alkers86 said:
Who owns the car - yourself or the business?

Can you not just pay yourself the revenue mileage allowances for business use, based on kms travelled and take that tax free?
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I'm a sole trader. So the business and me are one and the same for tax purposes.
And as T McGibney said, revenue milage allowances aren't allowed for sole traders.
 
tinymouse said:
I have a part time self employed job which involves some driving.
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tinymouse said:
I don't use an accountant, as the sums involved in my business are quite modest.
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Are the EV charging/running costs of significant enough value to bother trying to apportion some of them to the job and claim relief with the risk that any mistake might result in problems with/hassle from Revenue?
 
If you charge at home and use part of your home electricity bill as a business expense, would that have rates implications ?
 
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