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Many self-employed business people run their business from their home address. In addition, they use their own personal car for business purposes. But what does this mean for claiming mileage expenses?
If you are self-employed ( sole trader), run your business from home and use your own personal car you can claim for any travel expense which is required by your business as long as the business element can be separated from any private element.
For example you can claim the mileage if you used your own car for a trip into town to bank your business cheques and call at the supermarket on the way home.
You do need to make sure you are taking reasonable care in apportioning costs. To meet the HMRC’s (HM Revenue & Custom) requirement of reasonable care in apportioning costs, you must keep appropriate records.
Appropriate records
A simple spreadsheet is enough. It should keep a log of your business miles for each journey. You can then simply multiply the miles by the allowed mileage rate.
If you are claiming a proporation of the car’s running costs then in addition to recording your business miles you should also record of the vehicles recorded mileage at the beginning and end of each trading year. This means that an accurate assessment / percentage of your average business use can be calculated and applied to the total running costs.
Make your life easier
Bright angels has specifically designed simple Excel spreadsheets that make your life easier. These include spreadsheets for business expenses, mileage and a small business accounts. For more information call Kassia on 07855 276855.
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