2 undoubtedly stupid questions!

[Emra81]

So, doing my tax return for the first time and am probably making it more complicated than it needs to be! I'm hoping there's a more knowledgeable forum member out there who can point me in the right direction.....1) do you calculate your average hours over the year, month or week by week in terms of then knowing what % you can put through for water, council tax, heating etc? and 2) do you count hours that were booked and paid for but not used (i.e. child was on holiday or ill) as working hours? Strictly speaking we're not working as such but we still get paid.

Any thoughts?

[tulip0803]

I went on a tax course for childminders who advised that it was actual hours worked and should be worked out weekly so if a child is off then you cannot count their hours and if you are off for a week then nothing to be claimed even if you get paid holidays. You take the first actual arrival time and the last actual home time to get the hours worked each day.

It only makes a difference really if you are working less than 40 hours a week.

Other childminders say that they would argue with HMRC that they should be able to claim for a child that is off ill as they have heated the house for their arrival - but if they are the only child you wouldn't heat the house all day if you knew they were off before their arrival time IYSWIM.

[Rubybaby]

Hi there! This has bothered me too in the past, but I've since acted on the advice from the lovely people on here and claimed only for actual hours worked...it works for me as I have a mix of part timers, and can rarely claim 40 hours a week, but as Tulip points out, others have a different take on it. Some might argue that if the difference between actual and contracted hours amounts to a couple of hours over the week, that could be claimed as time spent doing necessary paperwork and therefore contributing to 'hours worked'?
I'm sure there's someone on here who can sort it out for you x

[Kiddleywinks]

You cannot claim for hours spent on paperwork when calculating hours worked to do your tax return, Rubybaby, only actual hours spent physically caring for minded children.

You are allowed to include additional paperwork hours when claiming tax credits though - Maybe that is why there's some confusion...?

To Emra81
In answer to Q1 - some calculate monthly, some annually and then average it out, for the amounts involved it made very little difference as far as I was concerned (I worked it out both ways for my first return)
So now, because I do my accounts at the end of each month, pay all my bills on a monthly DD/STO, and have some parents that pay monthly rather than weekly, I calculate everything on a monthly basis.
When it comes to actual hours worked, my contracted hours are the same each week, so it only changes when there's a non attendance, a parent requests additional hours, I have to close, or a child leaves/starts
If there's a gap in between one child leaving and another arriving, you shouldn't count the time in between (not even for paperwork)
In answer to Q2 - no, you cannot count the hours you're contracted, only the hours children physically attend

[dizzyalice]

I've been calculating my hours on a monthly basis and have been averaging them out, so if in May week 1, I do 22 hours, then week 2, I do 25 hours, week 3, 25 hours and week 4, 33 hours, then I add them all together and divide by 4.

However, as I generally only do term time, I had a one off for a week in August and did 8 hours. So do I still average this over 4 weeks or just over 1 week for the August percentage??

[Kiddleywinks]

This is where opinions may vary, so my advice is, do what suits you.

What I do when I'm on a holiday is, divide my bills by weeks of that month so either 4 or 5, then multiply by the weeks I'm actually working
I then claim the percentage on that amount.

An example - because I find it difficult to explain what I mean lol

It's a 4 week month and I'm taking a week off
My bills for the month are £300 so £300/4 =75
75 x 3 weeks actually worked =225

My hours percentage is the maximum allowed, so 33% and 10%
so 33% of 225 = 74.25, & 10% is 22.50


In your case, if I've read it correctly, you only worked for 1 week during august and that was for 8 hours... so I would divide my bills by 4, and use the 8 hour percentage to calculate what I can claim
HTH

[dizzyalice]

That makes complete sense - thanks Kiddleywinks x