That's not how HMRC sees it unfortunately. The 'help to your business' must be the ONLY reason . Your argument could be used to justify any expense - if you don't eat food you won't be able to do your job, so you could claim for your breakfast and dinner, if you need to present yourself properly so you could claim for the hairdresser etc. This principle is called "exclusivity" and has been tested many times in the courts; there are hundreds of pages of
HMRC internal guidance on it.
I've said it before and I'll say it again the "would I need it if I were not self-employed" test can be a useful shortcut when considering expenses but it is NOT a test that has any basis in law. To be claimable an expense (or an identifiable part of an expense) must be incurred
necessarily,
wholly and
exclusively for a business purpose, and not be specifically excluded by law.
I don't normally comment on advice given by other professionals but this one is so clearly not allowable that I would really question whether this person is competent.
Bookmarks