Car mileage and own children.

[danast]

Hi all

I had a tax course for childminders with business advisor from inland rev. and the lady told us that if we taking minded children on outing and bringing our own children as well in the same car than we should not count the mileage a a business.:angry:
Did anyone else heard this?
I know we can not claim expensed for our children but the journeys???
So if i go to park in summer holidays with minded children and bring my own 6 and 9 yrs old with me ,i can not claim mileage,because they get something out of it.

I told her that the only reason why i am taking kids with me ,is ,because it is illegal to leave them home alone! and If i would want to take my kids to park ,i would take them at the weekend where i can give them my full undivided attention and they do not need to go to park which are best suited for toddlers!

Do you all disregard the mileage when your own kids are in the car as well?:eek:

[Curly Quavers]

If I am making a journey to the park or soft play I claim my 40 pence per mile regardless of who else is in the car as long as I have at least one mindee with me of course.

[TheBTeam]

Same here! I claim if i am doing the mileage with a childminding child in the car, i wouldn't if it was to take one of my children to a party or something, but my kids would not have half of the outings they do if i didn't childmind, i do the outings to keep my level of service high and to occupy so many children, my children would do a lot of different things if we weren't taking the childminded children.

I personally would still claim it how would they know, we sometimes dh and i have to take two cars to account for our numbers and i claim for both when needed to!

[rickysmiths]

I work on the simple basis that if I am doi9ng a trip, even to the supermarket and it is for cm regardless of who else might be in the car it is claimed for.

Gosh if I had worked on that basis I wouldn't have been able to claim any milage until 2 years ago when my 2 started to travel to school independantly and stopped coming on all the outtings in the holidays.

My hubby is my assistant and in the holidays we sometimes need to use two cars to get out so I claim the mileage for both.

[danast]

yes that is what i do and i do claim,but she is adamant that this is wrong and if you get inspected the tax inspector will not let you put it through!
Not impressed at all!!:angry:

I wil still do what i am doing and play ignorant.

[PixiePetal]

I don't drive so use public transport. Claim for my fare and any mindees old enough to pay but not my own kids.

Mileage is mileage when you drive :rolleyes: - no difference if you have 2 or 6 passengers! You can hardly leave your kids at home :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Louise_Oaktree]

According to Inland Revenue if it is a journey you would not be making if you weren't a CM them you can claim ;)

This is of course your word against theirs so I fail to see how they could query it...unless it was obviously not business related or for example to collect your own children from school ;)

[little chickee]

a few months ago i took 3 mindees and 2 of my own kids to an organised toddler trip to a soft play area 50 miles from home - i would not have gone had i not been working ( and i was supposed to be on holiday anyway) so i claimed the 100 miles - cant afford not to.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

How would the IR know whether you had your children or not?

[Alibali]

According to Inland Revenue if it is a journey you would not be making if you weren't a CM them you can claim ;)

This is of course your word against theirs so I fail to see how they could query it...unless it was obviously not business related or for example to collect your own children from school ;)

Here's a question, what if because of your childminding you have to drive to collect your children from school. I would walk to collect my children from school most days, but if I have lo's sleeping I have to waken them and then have to take the car as we are too late to walk due to sleep times. Could I claim this? Purely hypothetical as I collect after schoolies so am claiming for them anyway, but what if i never had after schoolies?

[danast]

yes the woman said even if you picking afterschoolers from the same school as your own children than that does not count as business mileage because you would go there anyway.

[christine e]

Bet MP's claim mileage regardless of who is in car!

Cx

[Tired]

wow, im in trouble then, I always claim for school run, when I have my DD and minded children.

Also, one day a week I take my DD to an activity 5 miles away. Then I drop mindee at an activity 5 miles past my house the other way. Should I claim mileage from my house, or from DDs activity, as that is where I would be if I was not minding?

[Daftbat]

I have just had a look on www.hmrc.gov.uk re this question - results below, and whilst the initial statement from them seems to support what this tax advisor has said the second exerpt which i found from a link from the first one seems to indicate that we would be ok as there have been test cases which have set a precident.



"Taxpayers cannot claim the allowance for private journeys, such as travel from home to work, or for journeys that serve both a business and a private purpose."

BIM37600 - Wholly & exclusively: duality of, or non-trade, purpose: travel costs
The trade purpose must be the only purpose
To qualify under ICTA88/S74 (1)(a), the trade purpose of the expense must be the sole purpose. A non-trade or private purpose precludes deduction in full where there is no objective yardstick by which any trade element can be distinguished from the non-trade element.

Apportionment
There is nothing in ICTA88/S74 (1)(a) about apportioning expenditure; for example allowing the ‘trade proportion’. On the face of things the statutory test is all or nothing. But you should not interpret ICTA88/S74 (1)(a) as requiring that the whole of the expenditure be incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade, profession or vocation.

I am going to carry on as before - in my opinion i go on outings with minded children as part of my planning and if my children just happen to not be doing anything else then they come with me. I don't claim expenses for them individually.

[Lady Haha]

Well, this is very worrying!!! Like most of you, my son is in the car where ever we go! But I wouldn't be going to the majority of these places ifI wasn't minding. Suppose I better start taking all mindees to school and making my seven year old son walk on his own!:rolleyes:

[atmkids]

I went on a similar course recently and the man from the IR basically said that as you MAY not have gone on the trip if you hadn't been minding and there's no way of proving otherwise then it's ok to claim AMAP.

[TheBTeam]

Pretty much all of my trips in the summer have other childminders going on them, so to me this is good enough because i only know these people through minding and wouldn't be with them if i didn't mind!

I have to take my children but in most cases we would not go otherwise because they do not want to go to most of the places over and over again!!:laughing: And i could sit at home for some of the time and let them get on with their own things and play with their own mates, not the ones i force on them, so they would probably rather not go on most outings, I definitely only do them because i am minding!!

Hope the tax man reads this!:laughing: :laughing:

[claireLouise]

If I am making a journey to the park or soft play I claim my 40 pence per mile regardless of who else is in the car as long as I have at least one mindee with me of course.

I also attended an Inland Revenue Course and this was not mentioned. I charge for all trips and trips to supermarkets as without them I could not conduct my business. I do think this is a grey area but as long as you are consistent the inland revenie will not investigate.

Hope this helps

Claire

[Chatterbox Childcare]

I was told that as long as you can justify it to an inspector if they did an audit then claim.

[LeanneC]

Hi

My car is only used during the week when im minding so my mileometer* is set each month and I claim 40p per mile for that. (dh car is used for everything else) As i started only in April my accountant said to take a note of the miles each month and they will sort it out when year end comes around. I have my own child with me at all times but i also have 3 or 4 other mindees at the same time... business is business regardless of you having your own children your still working!!