petrol costs

[emitchell285]

Hello,
at the moment l charge the parents 30p a mile for dropping off and picking up. From reading this forum this is not allowed. I have a parent that i collect their child 6 miles away and as you can imagine this costs alot! what should i do?

[Daftbat]

You can claim 40 pence per mile in your accounts for fuel costs. I would do this and then charge the parent from the time you leave home to pick up the child from them - afterall you are actually working. I used to do this years ago when I had quite a long drive to pick up from nursery.

[Stew....pid]

The mileage allowance is now 45p per mile, it was raised by the chancellor in the last budget and was effective from April this year :)

[desiderata]

posted in the wrong place.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Just build in the cost of mileage into your rates and you won't lose money

[jumpinjen]

Perhaps you could work out what the hourly fee would be if you added the 30p/mile that you have been charging.... for example if you have the child for four hours a day and travel 10 miles for drop offs, this would make an extra £3.00 on the daily fee.... so could you put your hourly fee up to cover this, say increase your fee by 75p/hour if a four hour day, then the three pounds is covered for..... explain to mum that you have found out that you are not actually allowed to charge separately for travel costs and therefore you need to adjust the fee to cover that amount.....

the other alternative is to charge for extra time.... so if you leave for school drop off at twenty to nine and by the time you have dropped off, got back in the car and come home it is 9.30 then charge until that time to cover the costs....

work them both out and see what you think!

HTH, Jen x

[Stew....pid]

Just build in the cost of mileage into your rates and you won't lose money

You could be on a loser that way as mileage allowance is non taxable, alright so it may only be 100 quid a year but its better in your pocket than the tax mans :)

[Chatterbox Childcare]

You could be on a loser that way as mileage allowance is non taxable, alright so it may only be 100 quid a year but its better in your pocket than the tax mans :)

yes but you have to register as a taxi and that affects your insurance if you don't - hard one..

[MrAnchovy]

You could be on a loser that way as mileage allowance is non taxable, alright so it may only be 100 quid a year but its better in your pocket than the tax mans :)

That's not true. Any money you receive relating to childminding is taxable, but if you use your car for business you are allowed 40p per mile (45p from 6th April 2011) for the first 10,000 miles per year (then 25p) as an expense no matter how you charge for it.

It's just the same as food - you can either charge for it separately or include it in your rates, but whatever you do you have to declare all of your income for tax, and claim the actual cost as an expense.

In fact you are actually better off this way because you get to deduct 10% wear and tear on mileage (and food) income as well.

But as others have said, you are not allowed to make a charge for providing transport unless you are registered as a taxi (and need appropriate insurance), so you need to find some way of incorporating this in your rate for the relevant children.