New Car - What can i claim

[michellem]

Hi all, i have my first children starting next week and have been out at the weekend to buy a new car (as our car is tiny tiny) so we can fit all of our new children in. We are keeping our old car for our own personal family use so the new car will just be for minding. We have taken out a loan to fund this which we will e paying back at £200 per month. Can i put this £200 through my books? Any advice would be appreciated as i am not really sure about the accounts side of things yet. If anyone could offer any simple advice it would be great. Thanks Michelle xx

[supermumy]

U cAn claim the cost of a car 2 ways

Petrol- 46p a mile
Or
The whole car but that gets tricky and opens up hassle to me

I don't think you could claim back the whole amount on your books? But may be wrong

[michellem]

Thanks for your response, can anybody else clarify this for me please?

[christine e]

Hi

Here is a link to an old thread that I replied to last year
http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/fo...nding-tax.html

I have copied and pasted below what I posted as a reply and Mr Anchovy did say that I was correct - you might like to read the whole thread as Mr A also commented on what happens if you have a loan - hope this helps

You can either do the 45p a mile route or the other think it is called capital depreciation where you take the value of the car and for example will say it cost £10,000 then you take 8% = £800 you then need to work out (by keeping a mileage log) the number of business miles so for this example we will say 50% is business use so we take 50% of £800 = £400. You then take 50% of all petrol, insurance, mot, service etc etc and add to the £400 and that is the amount you can put down as expenses. The following year you start with a value of £9,200 as the value for the car and then take 8% from that figure but do watch out as HMRC do change the depreciation allowance from time to time. Not sure what you do about the loan but I'm sure Mr A will come along soon and advise.

[adedwards68]

If you phone the tax office they will tell you what you can and can't claim. Someone suggested to me for the first year keep a record of mileage and expenses and when you fill in your tax form see which is better for you. Once you start claiming with one method you can't change to the other method

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Both of the above offer good advice.

As you are using the car for 100% childminding I don't think you can go down the depreciation route so make sure 1% is personal if you want to do this (check with HMRC or your accountant for clarification).

The rate that you can claim depends on the emissions of the car.

Lets say you are claiming 100% - keep all you mileage routes to prove where you have been, the same as if you were doing .45p, petrol receipts, mot, repairs and maintenance, services, car cleaning, valeting - absolutely everything and you can claim the business percentage.

The CD is a calculation each year of cost of car x emissions allowance x business percentage and then the amount you claim comes off of the cost of the car for the next year.

for example - car cost is £10,000 with 8% allowable claim

£10,000 x 8% = £800 divide by 100 x 99 (99%) = claim of £792.00 and the following year you starting figure is £10000 less £800 = £9200.00. If you keep the car and write off all of the cost to nil then when you sell the car you need to declare anything you got from it and then you will be taxed on the profit.

You take all your receipts and do the same as the above, including interest on your loan. Note that the interest on the loan can also be claimed on the .45p a mile AS LONG as you claim the business percentage.

Hope that helps