Attending Courses

[Tired]

Hi, I'm new here, and hope someone can help.
When attending a course at the weekend, or evening, can we somehow put it through our books as expenses?
I thought if I "charged" my hourly rate, and called it an expense, it would be ok. does anyone know? I just am growing to resent doing so much work for free.
Any advice would be great.

[crazybones]

You can only claim your petrol/travel expenses as far as I am aware.

[Pedagog]

Hi, I'm new here, and hope someone can help.
When attending a course at the weekend, or evening, can we somehow put it through our books as expenses?
I thought if I "charged" my hourly rate, and called it an expense, it would be ok. does anyone know? I just am growing to resent doing so much work for free.
Any advice would be great.


I don't know about for childminding, but I have a friend who is a self employed builder and he claims for the time spent working when doing his books etc, after all it is work.

[Tired]

thanks for such quick replys.
does anyone else know anything about this?

[sarah707]

I suggest you speak with the tax office ...

They will be able to best advise you -

http://search2.hmrc.gov.uk/kbroker/hmrc/contactus/start.jsp

[Pauline]

I suggest you speak with the tax office ...

They will be able to best advise you -

http://search2.hmrc.gov.uk/kbroker/hmrc/contactus/start.jsp

Yes that's a good idea and if they say YES please can you let us know :thumbsup:

[DudleyChildmind]

I don't know about for childminding, but I have a friend who is a self employed builder and he claims for the time spent working when doing his books etc, after all it is work.

That's a good idea. I wonder if Childminders would be allowed to do this?

[PaulaR]

please let us know how you get on at tax office. I have been on loads of course and doing and NVQ so I would be interesred to know

[Twinkles]

Love the username 'tired' but it does make me yawn when I read it :laughing:

[Tired]

I spoke to the tax office. They say: If its a course we have to do for the job, eg Paedeatric First Aid, then we can claim, at our hourly rate, as an expense.
Other courses, that we could childmind legaly without doing, then we cant claim.

thanks for your help everyone, and hope this helps you.

[crazybones]

Thanks for letting us know. :D

[oneofeach]

I have my 1st Aid course over 3 saturday mornings this month.

Can I "charge" myself for that time?

And can I charge double time as I would if I were childminding on a Saturday?:)

[Andrea08]

mmmm? well i claim for petrol, babysitter for my youngest £10 their meal as training is always at tea time 6pm so chippy quickie, and a treat for missing bed time! x

[jackie_5]

I spoke to the tax office. They say: If its a course we have to do for the job, eg Paedeatric First Aid, then we can claim, at our hourly rate, as an expense.
Other courses, that we could childmind legaly without doing, then we cant claim.

thanks for your help everyone, and hope this helps you.

Can we claim our hourly rate on top of the cost of the course and petrol too ?

[Tired]

I didn't ask about petrol and food costs, I assume you can claim these on top of hourly rate.
Also, i suppose if you charge double on a sat you could claim that, (i doubt the tax office would think it excessive, I bet even at double time its a lots less than other self employed people charge thier time as) but i would check first if i were you.
I just called my local tax office and they transferred me to a technical team to aswer my questions.

[Pauline]

Brilliant, thanks for sharing that info 'Tired' :thumbsup:

I would think that you can claim for food, petrol and cost of course too because you would not be spending on them if you were not minding.

[shopshelleyd]

Ooh thats really interesting, myself and some other childminders have often grumbled we should be able to claim something for time spent on courses and didn't think we would be able to. Every little helps :clapping:

[jackie_5]

Ooh thats really interesting, myself and some other childminders have often grumbled we should be able to claim something for time spent on courses and didn't think we would be able to. Every little helps :clapping:

I wonder if any eyfs training courses could be included too !

[MissTinkerbell]

I wonder if any eyfs training courses could be included too !

As part of my start up grant I HAVE to do 4 courses - can I claim for those? or is that pushing it a bit? I suppose that I would still be able to childmind but just not get the grant.

[helenlc]

I know someone who was down graded in her Ofsted inpspection for not attending enough courses, as this was deemed as she was not keeping up to date.

Therefore, I know the Tax Office said if its courses you could childmind without, you could argue we need to attend a fair amount of courses per year?

I have just been on one about filling in my Tax Return and had I read this before I went, I could have asked!

I can claim for a babysitter plus my petrol costs there and back can't i?

Thanks