claiming expenses when children are absent

[happyfeet]

I'm doing my acounts at the moment and stuck with something.

If a child didn't turn up on the contracted day and I've charged for it, does this still count as part of my hours for the working week or not.

I'm working out percentages for each of my working weeks but don't know if the hours I've charged for counts as me working that day even if mindee wasn't here.

A lot of my parents get child care tax credit and if say for example, they are claiming 30 hrs a week and one week they pay me 30hrs and child only attends one session, does my working week still equal 30 or is my hours 10 that week.

I'm just curious as to how it works if you put down on one sheet you worked ten hours a week but your invoice shows you were paid for 30????


Thanks if you can help.

Also if child is late arriving. If I'm ready to start work at 7 as this is when my first one is due but they don't arrive until 7.45 does my working hours for that day start at 7.45 or do I claim from 7 when I was ready for them arriving.

[MrAnchovy]

In a perfect world, the rules we have to follow would be written to deal effectively with every situation that is likely to happen.

Unfortunately this is not a perfect world, and these are two very imperfect sets of rules!

In theory, you can only claim the maximum 33% of your heating and lighting bills via the HMRC concession for childminders expenses if you actually look after children for 40 hours a week.

But if a child is expected at 7am, paid for from 7am and you have your heating on so it is warm at 7am you don't save any money if they turn up at 7.45 so it doesn't make sense that you can claim less. In the case of a sick child so that your working day is shorter there is perhaps some potential saving as you can turn the heating off earlier, but nobody from HMRC is going to get very excited about one-off adjustments in either of these cases I am sure.

The childcare element of WTC is based on the cost of childcare, not the number of hours used so there is actually nothing to worry about there.

If you find yourself worrying about what you can and can't claim, or that the rules don't seem to be written down in black and white (they aren't) or deal with every common situation (they don't), you might be better off using an accountant?

[happyfeet]

Even if I was still working those hours??

Sometimes I don't find out that the child isn't coming until 10 mins before they are due so the house is warmed and ready for them.

When I find out they aren't coming I use the hours that I'm being paid to do other work associated with childminding i.e catching up on paperwork or updating their LJ's so it's not really time off.

Things that I need time to do for myself such as housework or shopping I do on my days off that I'm not receiving payment for.

[MrAnchovy]

Even if I was still working those hours??

In theory yes. But in practice, nobody expects you to calculate in that level of detail. If it were me, I would add up the total number of hours I was paid to look after children during the year, divide by 52 and use that.

Look at it this way - if your heat and light bills are £60 a week, at 40 hours you can claim £20 a week, so 50p for each hour which will save you 10p in tax. Noone is going to worry if your tax calculations are out by 10p.

[MrAnchovy]

Even if I was still working those hours??

In theory yes. But in practice, nobody expects you to calculate in that level of detail. If it were me, I would add up the total number of hours I was paid to look after children during the year, divide by 52 and use that.

Look at it this way - if your heat and light bills are £60 a week, at 40 hours you can claim £20 a week, so 50p for each hour which will save you 10p in tax. Noone is going to worry if your tax calculations are out by 10p.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

I work mine out on contracted hours unless I am on holiday. I heat the house so they can come after all

[happyfeet]

Thanks for your replies.

Getting somewhere with it now I think!!!