claiming for oil help please

[vicky5432]

Hi i am aware we can claim a % of our heating, which for me is oil. I am confusing myself on the best way to do this. I only have oil delivered when it is low and needed so can be at various times throughout the year.

I initially decided to work out how many weeks between each invoice and then divided the price of the oil by how many weeks to give me a weekly price, which i then worked out the % i could claim for.

This was fine and i could work out 2 lots of oil deliveries up until the last delivery which was the 06/01/12. Our next delivery wont be due until at least september/ october this year so cant work out any %'s until next delivery if i continue to work it out this way and dont want to wait til then to complete tax returns.

the 1st delivery of oil that i would have used for childminding was delivered bk in dec 2010 and i then started minding in the april 2011 and the next delivery was middle june 2011 and then finally jan this yr (hope ur following :blush:) would i be able to add the 3 invoices together to get a total from dec '10 to jan '12,( just over 1 yr) work out how many weeks and then divide total price by number of weeks, as previously done but with all invoices, then work out %'s ????

I am really confusing myself sorry if this all seems like gobble di gook, cant afford to pay an accountant to sort out everything :(

[Chatterbox Childcare]

So you get the oil twice a year. Why not take a years cost (2 invoices) and work the percentage on this cost?

[vicky5432]

Thanks i knew i was over complicating things

[sarahjane]

I have oil too, but I pay mine by monthly direct debit so the oil's already been paid for when I order it. I save over the summer and then by the end of winter I have to start again, but it works out! Because I pay the same each month I just take a percentage of that amount.

[ziggy]

i have oil too, i buy £200 of oil when tank is getting low, work out how many weeks that has lasted and work out weekly percentage depending how many hours i worked that week

probably sounds more confusing than it is

[PixiePetal]

So you get the oil twice a year. Why not take a years cost (2 invoices) and work the percentage on this cost?

this is what I do. usually 3 deliveries :( sooo expensive at the moment but I can't have the house cold for mindees. When it's just me I put on a jumper :rolleyes:

[clairelou]

I just put 1/3 of the bill through when I get one, usually 2 fill ups one year and 3 the next, no dividing it into monthly or anything, at the end of the tax year it all adds up to the same anyway.

[kindredspirits]

sorry to go a bit off topic here but i'm moving into a house with oil fired heating and have never used it before.
Can I ask if anyone has specific RA's for their oil tank.
And also how much do you tend to buy/how long does it last?? i've always had gas so its all new to me.

[PixiePetal]

sorry to go a bit off topic here but i'm moving into a house with oil fired heating and have never used it before.
Can I ask if anyone has specific RA's for their oil tank.
And also how much do you tend to buy/how long does it last?? i've always had gas so its all new to me.

I have it on my garden RA. DH put a heavy panelled gate in front of it so now not accessible to children. It is half hidden behind a barn too :thumbsup:

we get 1500 litres at a time (i think :o ) costs a lot at the moment - filled 2 or 3 times a year. There is no gas in our village so no choice here really:rolleyes:

[ziggy]

I have lots of large heavy plant pots around mine so children cant go near it. Difficult to explain how long oil lasts, when we had bad snow £200 worth only lasted 4weeks!!!!! Guess it would depend on size of your house, insulation, whether you keep heating on all day during cold times etc etc

[clairelou]

ours is a old 3 bedroom house, 2-3 fill ups a year of 1000 litres a time upwards of £600 a time so can be approaching £2000 a year:eek:
and I am careful, the stat is never above 18 degrees

[Bluebell]

I have oil too, but I pay mine by monthly direct debit so the oil's already been paid for when I order it. I save over the summer and then by the end of winter I have to start again, but it works out! Because I pay the same each month I just take a percentage of that amount.



Do you not need to have a copy of your actual invoices for HMRC purposes so you can demonstrate the actual cost??

I was wondering about this because I changed from E-on to EDF so I could get my pre-pay metres changed for free, EDF were frankly a nightmare from start to finish and so we changed to N-Power, I still haven't had one single bill from EDF but pay an estimated amount to N-power for gas and for electric. I was worried that calculating a percentage of my monthly DD would not be an exact representation of my actual usage and that as I haven't been using N-Power for the whole year that wouldn't be entirely accurate either?

Any advice appreciated!

[sarahjane]

Do you not need to have a copy of your actual invoices for HMRC purposes so you can demonstrate the actual cost??

I was wondering about this because I changed from E-on to EDF so I could get my pre-pay metres changed for free, EDF were frankly a nightmare from start to finish and so we changed to N-Power, I still haven't had one single bill from EDF but pay an estimated amount to N-power for gas and for electric. I was worried that calculating a percentage of my monthly DD would not be an exact representation of my actual usage and that as I haven't been using N-Power for the whole year that wouldn't be entirely accurate either?

Any advice appreciated!
I have and keep the receipts for the fuel delivered and paid for from my account. I also have bank statements which show the payment to Goff each month.

[ziggy]

just a query bout oil................Can i just add up amount of oil bought over the year and claim 1/3 of it? I thought we could only claim 1/3 if we worked 40hrs. I would do this most weeks but then they're holidays and sick days when i dont

sorry just find this tax thing very confusing. As mentioned in earlier posts i work out weekly cost of oil and claim percentage depending on hours worked. Am i making hard work of this? Come to think of it i'm doing this for electricity used as well

[kindredspirits]

i personally think thats too complicated ziggy - i don't think HMRC are worried about the odd sick day which takes you under 40 hours that week. i might be wrong but they have bigger fish to fry than worrying about that!! :) When my DH was a driving instructor HMRC called him in and told him he was working out his tax wrong, told him how to do it (which worked out at him paying a lot lot less tax) and then effectively told him that as long as he is declaring something they weren't too worried!)

I am dreading living with the oil tank - the house also has storage heaters so will probably use them more - i told DH we'd have to top up at least 500 litres of oil and he just said 'well we won't use it then...' (I think it might run the hot water boiler! pmsl, lets see how long that lasts!)

[Bluebell]

I have and keep the receipts for the fuel delivered and paid for from my account. I also have bank statements which show the payment to Goff each month.

Thank you Sarah-Jane - am thinking I may have needed to be a bit more organised with my non-childminding paperwork and bank statements so I can reference it!!! Never mind - more work this year but hopefully next year will be easier if I keep it all to hand!

[MrAnchovy]

i personally think thats too complicated ziggy - i don't think HMRC are worried about the odd sick day which takes you under 40 hours that week

Absolutely. As long as you work more than 2,080 hours in a year (40 x 52) you are 'full time' and can claim the maximum percentage.

[ziggy]

oh thats great news, thank you