Internet & phone

[Cariad]

Does anyone know if I can claim back any of my expenses for the costs of internet and mobile? I don't use my landline for any childminding use, I just use my mobile. I know I can't claim the whole of my contract costs as it is not used purely for business use. I do use my internet on both my pc and my phone so I was wondering if any of that could be claimed.

[Allie]

I put a portion through as I would never want to be out and about without my mobile and since one of my mindees had a very serious choking incident while in my setting I also always have the mobile on the table while the children are eating, seriously it's too difficult to talk on a wall phone and try to get a very heavy three year old over your knee when food is stuck (luckily when it happened here my adult daughter was home)

Allie

[sarah707]

The advice in here has been checked with HMRC recently by one of our members -

expenses and tax - by Sarah (http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/freeresources/Free%20downloads/taxinformation.html)

However, things do change so you should always ring and check with them if you are not sure :D

[bunyip]

Our group recently had a talk given by an HMRC officer. It seems they're gradually coming round to the fact that it's impossible to itemise and figure the cost of calls these days, since so many of us are on 'package deal' contracts. My monthly calls are usually all included within the contracted 'free' calls - but of course, they're not 'free' cos I have to pay for the whole package. Ironically, the ones that aren't included are all business calls because NCMA and (wait for it...) HMRC insist on using 0845-prefix numbers.

I claim 12.5% of the bill as business use which is in fact, quite a low estimate when I occasionally check it against actual business calls. But the actual sum isn't a whole hill of beans, so I'm ok with that.

The HMRC officer suggested that sort of system would probably be acceptable. She was also asked, "If we only claimed for itemised calls, would HMRC really go through the list of phone numbers and check they were genuine business calls." and she admitted that would be highly unlikely. :rolleyes:

[MrAnchovy]

Bear in mind that HMRC are not there to save you tax and will always give you their view of how they would like to interpret the law.

An accountant (a good one who spends time and money keeping up to date with the latest changes coming from decisions in the courts and tax tribunals) will give you a view on what you can actually claim.

Any phone or land line that is used for business you can claim an appropriate percentage. If you have an inclusive package HMRC will accept an apportionment based on actual call usage over a 2 month period.