Yep, you do that.Originally Posted by jmitch
I’d say this was an entirely reasonable query. But initially you clearly wanted the whole cost to be covered by the taxpayer.
I’m a consultant and my shared office space is paid for by me, but before tax. One of the few remaining benefits of being self-employed (unless you talk to thestore it seems 😆)
Longer term that's looking more of an option. I don't want to leap into it quite yet though.
It may be sensible not to wait too long though as houses are selling in no time here as the exodus from London to the provinces continues.
You would if you were under the impression that the self employed effectively get full (or near) lease costs reimbursed from HMRC somehow. The lease cost comes off your tax liability so the saving is nowhere near the total cost. Additionally, the self employed get no sick pay, holiday pay, plus have numerous other financial liabilities such as accounts fees etc. All generally things that most PAYE employees don’t have to consider.
Last edited by benny.c; 15th December 2020 at 00:19.
I’’ve worked from home 50% of the time since March.
To make life easier I have purchased, from my own money, a laptop dock (2nd hand from eBay), an office chair (again 2nd hand, eBay), a better webcam and a headset with microphone.
I could have asked the taxpayers to pick up the bill for me, but that would be greedy as they do pay my wages what with working for the NHS.
I would rather not to be honest. But if you are a PAYE employee do make sure you still take your full statutory holiday entitlement won't you. It will help with your stress levels.
I can point you in the direction of a cheap office slash office share if you like? It would be a bargain if we go 50/50.
It has a lovely view, it would help you relax.
Working from home is fine in principle but some people’s homes or domestic situations really aren’t conducive to working. If a spare room can be converted to an office that’s fine, but many folks don’t have that facility, they didn’t buy a house with the aim of providing a working environment. The cost of housing in London and home counties exacerbates the problem, in the longer term people may end up living much further from work if they don't have to travel there frequently.
I live 5 miles from east Wakefield, which is a 2 hr train ride from central London, the area’s OK and a decent 4 bed modern detached house can be bought for £250-£265k..........food for thought? The daily commuting to work model will be confined to history.
That's nice.I’’ve worked from home 50% of the time since March.
To make life easier I have purchased, from my own money, a laptop dock (2nd hand from eBay), an office chair (again 2nd hand, eBay), a better webcam and a headset with microphone.
I could have asked the taxpayers to pick up the bill for me, but that would be greedy as they do pay my wages what with working for the NHS
I spent a decade working for the NHS and sincerely hoped I would be there forever despite the constant upheaval, endless unpaid hours and weekends. I enjoyed it up until they privatised my service, handed the contract to serco, offshored my role and made me redundant with hundreds of others.
There, now we can both signal our virtues together. Yay.
Let's see....
So I was in the NHS for 12 years, working an average of 10 hours unpaid (unheard of in other roles but totally normal in finance) per week. At an average of £15 per hour and for 48 weeks of the year
12 years X 48 weeks X 10 hours X £15.
Oh look, it was only £86k. More if it was paid at overtime rates (AfC band5)
If only I had been paid that I would easily have to money for an office, or definitely a bigger house with room for one.
But never mind, what a complete bastard I must be eh?
Edit, sorry I must be getting excessively grumpy now. :-(
Last edited by jmitch; 15th December 2020 at 00:47.
I'm self employed (well a one man company)and have all the associated risks. Work totally ended with the first lockdown when all of my work for the year was lost almost immediately. I was shielding (extreme shielding) which included not being in the same kitchen, bathroom or bedroom as my partner for almost 5 months. I am also now shielding (again) until January 6th at the earliest. No sick pay, no holiday pay, have not been entitled to a penny from the government during lockdown as due to illness no accounts submitted for the period requested. It ain't been easy. However, after a little time feeling sorry for myself and dealing with the effects of chemo, I switched focus and drummed up more business remotely. I too work with law enforcement, as well as many other professionals with meetings done remotely now, and have all kinds of confidentiality clauses attached to work that I am commissioned to do. My partner has to work from home now as she may be a risk to me if she goes into the office. She too is in a job that requires confidentiality clauses and agreements to be signed. Our house is currently partitioned for this reason and is a tiny house. The only people that have not signed confidentiality agreements are the two dogs....... Compared to most people that I know I feel bloody lucky. sadly crime and child abuse are going to be growing industries so as long as I can remain above the ground and able to think, I can earn some kind of living..... Make the most of what you have fella, don't worry about people being more sympathetic if you were self employed. Stay safe and well and count your blessings
I must admit northern England would seriously tempt me if relocation became a necessity.
I already spend all my holidays in a leaking tent on mountains in the lake District so it would be amazing to have all that rain and scenery available a couple of hours away.
Definitely a better work life balance.
Edit: I mean that genuinely, I love rain and solitude.
Last edited by jmitch; 15th December 2020 at 00:56.
OP I'm not having the time of my life working from home either. For various reasons I won't bore you with the situation is far from ideal. I've given up and bought my own 27" monitor, I have a top spec keyboard and mouse coming on Thursday, I'm ordering a proper desk tomorrow once I double check the measurements and anything else I think of too. Work will let me take a proper chair from the office but I need to pay congestion to drive in and get it.
I'm saving on the commute by £200pm and none of what I'm buying is going to cost me £2.4k. Take your commute savings and anything else and put them towards what works for you, inside the home or outside with a private office etc. What price is your mental health? Your marriage? Really if your wife's work has the confidentiality issues then it should be her speaking to her employer but that's up to you two.
My employer is offering the grand sum of $75 or local equivalent towards any WFH equipment but you just have to suck it up. You only have to log into LinkedIn to see pages of people unemployed and updating their statuses, putting up messages asking for referrals and jobs. We're the lucky ones but it's easy to forget it with all the stress.
That sounds like this year has been incredibly difficult for you yet you still remain positive. Thanks for that hope all goes well for you.I'm self employed (well a one man company)and have all the associated risks. Work totally ended with the first lockdown when all of my work for the year was lost almost immediately. I was shielding (extreme shielding) which included not being in the same kitchen, bathroom or bedroom as my partner for almost 5 months. I am also now shielding (again) until January 6th at the earliest. No sick pay, no holiday pay, have not been entitled to a penny from the government during lockdown as due to illness no accounts submitted for the period requested. It ain't been easy. However, after a little time feeling sorry for myself and dealing with the effects of chemo, I switched focus and drummed up more business remotely. I too work with law enforcement, as well as many other professionals with meetings done remotely now, and have all kinds of confidentiality clauses attached to work that I am commissioned to do. My partner has to work from home now as she may be a risk to me if she goes into the office. She too is in a job that requires confidentiality clauses and agreements to be signed. Our house is currently partitioned for this reason and is a tiny house. The only people that have not signed confidentiality agreements are the two dogs....... Compared to most people that I know I feel bloody lucky. sadly crime and child abuse are going to be growing industries so as long as I can remain above the ground and able to think, I can earn some kind of living..... Make the most of what you have fella, don't worry about people being more sympathetic if you were self employed. Stay safe and well and count your blessings
I do indeed count my blessings and as long as I still have a job I am one of the lucky ones.
My self employed tax allowance for working from home (home as office) is £3 per week.
That means I am allowed to earn £3 tax free, to pay for my electric, gas, water, building maintenance etc
I am in the 20% tax bracket - so 20% of £3 = 60p per week for me to pay the bills.
So unfortunately the short answer to the original question is no, a grant of £50 per week is not going to be a likely scenario.
Yes, there are different rules for the taxation of employed and self-employed.
In my experience that is not the case - many others in the NHS work that unpaid and more. I worked for the NHS for 13 years in the 80s and 90s in a clinical role and that sort of commitment was normal for many disciplines. I can assure you that Finance aren't - or certainly weren't - the exception as far as unpaid overtime is concerned.
+1
I’m in a non-clinical, non-finance, role. Cannot recall the last time I didn’t do numerous unpaid hours each week.
Just back from being on leave for two weeks but still monitored my email and voicemail, took call when I could, as well as joined several Teams meetings (using my own, non-NHS, iPad for convenience).
I am not alone in doing so. In one meeting, with a manufacturer, all the individuals representing the health board I work for were on leave but gave up time to join the meeting.
It’s not just the rules, attitude here seems to be that OP is taking the piss.
Quite.
Solitude is bliss... for everyone, including his wife.
Ok the government has revealed that you are entitled to claim small amount towards “expenses” if you are being made (even temporarily) to WFH. How you use that saving is up to you. If you divert the savings towards your office rent then yes effectively your rent is being subsidized by hmrc, albeit indirectly. Hope that makes sense.
Think you missed my point.
Even if you, as a self employed person, rented that office, you’d only pay £10 per week less tax. You’d still be £40 per week down.
The simple answer to the OP is no, you can’t get the rent paid by HMRC, no one can. Your employer could rent it as a legitimate business expense and therefore pay less corporation tax but that too is only a percentage of the rent cost.
It seems that your wife’s business should be paying for an office fir her though, they’ve no right to ban you from a room in your house because they demand confidentiality. Unless they are paying rent for the room or you have an agreement in place with them.
Oddest thing about working from home is that overall my energy bills have gone down overall... 🤔
Don't think so. He's taking the piss, unless you think he isn't?
Ignoring whether it's right or wrong to ASK the original question, the answer is no, you can't get the taxman to pay for renting an office, as numerous people have said.
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
It is a legitimate business expense which would be reimbursed by your company but only if they agree to it.
The tax payer doesn’t pay the rent for any private company who rent offices, I don’t know why you think they do.
^ The level of understanding of what it means to be self-employed these days is absolutely woeful I’m afraid Dave, and most people’s knowledge is built from a heady mix of what they read in the Daily Mail, and knowing a wideboy who illegally defrauds the system with apparent ease. The OP has probably heard somewhere that the self-employed can ‘write off’ the costs associated with renting an office and felt hard done by that he can’t do the same.
I pay 81% of my office costs (via a corporation tax saving).
https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees - horse's mouth
And the main point:
You cannot claim tax relief if you choose to work from home.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Not the point but never mind.
What was your point?
That’s irrelevant because in this instance the OP is asking about effectively setting up a satellite office for him to work from rather than working from home.
It has nothing to do with HMRC, it’s purely a decision for his employer. Should the employer agree to it, the OP could rent the office and claim the full cost back from his employer via expenses. The employer would offset the cost against corporation tax (as a legitimate business expense) and it therefore only costs them 81% of the actual cost.
What's the matter? Is that weird van parked outside again?
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
But the guidance does lay out what an employee can claim for and the HMRC was his starting point. But in any case it is pretty clear he cannot achieve what he was hoping for via HMRC
This could go on for a bit - it’s like the Who’s on first sketch.
Perhaps someone in his house has had the Covid Vaccine?What's the matter? Is that weird van parked outside again?
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Or the Chuckle brothers, except one never chuckles …
I wish my wife worked for GCHQ or MI5 just anything that stopped her from talking about her day....
My wife's a Chartered Accountant.
She's just told me that, as a PAYE employee, you can't claim anything for renting an office.
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