working tax hours help

[samijored]

hi i am working during term-time for 4hrs 40 mins a week childminding and i have another term time job that i work 6hrs and 25min a week, during the hols i have been working between 12-25 hrs a week and will do each school hols. Am i able to add hours of cleanin(after childminding), shopping(for mindees) ,writing up obs, visiting the library to print off childminding related paperwork and doing my accounts as part of work when i claim working tax credits.

hope this makes sense Thank You

[charlottenash]

I don't KNOW the answer, but I can't see why not as you are working, however your not being paid so technically your not working but volunteering (if that makes sense)

[teacakepenguin]

Tricky.

It says here:

What counts as paid work?

If you're an employee, paid work means:

the work you do for your employer in return for payment (or where you would expect to be paid) such as wages
any ‘payment in kind’ (for example groceries for a person who works as a shop assistant, or farm produce for a farm labourer)

If you're self-employed, paid work means any work you do for payment (or would expect to be paid) or profit.


from HM Revenue & Customs: What counts as work for Working Tax Credit? (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/who-qualifies/workingtaxcredit/work.htm)

However there's info here Understanding self-employment « How do tax credits work? « Guidance « Tax Credits « Revenue Benefits (http://www.revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-credits/guidance/how-do-tax-credits-work/self-employed/) which seems a bit more helpful:

Calculating working hours

Under the Working Tax Credit (Entitlement and Maximum Rates) Regulations 2002, the number of hours which a self-employed person is in qualifying remunerative work is defined as ‘the number of hours he normally performs for payment or in expectation of payment’.

The HMRC compliance manual states that any hours which will be costed to the client/customer as spent in producing/providing the individual order or service count when working out hours for self-employment. In addition, the following activities also count:

trips to wholesalers and retailers
visits to potential clients for giving quotes etc
time spent on advertising or canvassing business
cleaning the business premises or space used specifically for business purposes
cleaning a vehicle used as part of the business, for example a taxi
travelling for the purposes of the business, but not from home to their business premises
book keeping
research work, for example where the claimant is an established author. Research carried out be persons who are not established authors, but are working in the hope of one day becoming established will not count

Does that help?

Jx

[Kiddleywinks]

For working tax credits you can allocate any time you spend unpaid to enable the running/upkeep of your business, so research, paperwork, cleaning, courses attended, purchasing of resources to enable you to run your business, etc is allowed. I make a little note in my diary of what I've done and how long I spent doing it should my hours ever be queried.
Unpaid hours cannot however be allocated towards your percentage allowance for your accounts (for some strange unknown reason)

HTH

[samijored]

Aww great,i rang them today and the gentlemen i spoke to said it was paid hours not working hours qualified a person to claim so term time i needed to make my hours up by 5.15 paid working hours but i was sure i had read different. I will give them a ring tomorrow and be a bit more confident explaining myself Thank You ALL :)