Allowable Expenses

As a business owner you may be keen on ensuring that your personal expense claims are kept as tax efficient as possible. However these claims will not completely eliminate any tax liability; and expenses, which are not justified by an appropriate invoice or receipt, cannot be claimed for.

Clothing is often an area, which creates some confusion amongst business owners and employees; there are a variety of rules for clothing depending on what you want to use it for.

Those in the building industry or other manual industries may claim for protective clothing i.e. hard hats, overalls, gloves, boots etc, all of which have a specific business purpose and reason for their purchase and you would therefore not purchase these otherwise for general everyday wear.

Normal clothes such as trousers, t-shirts, trainers etc are not allowable expenses as everyone needs to wear these types of clothing for warmth, decency or practicality.

There are other rules for clothing depending on which industry you are involved with and a few of these are noted below:

• ·     Specific allowable items include uniforms (waiter’s tails, a nurse’s uniform), costumes and protective clothing.
• ·     Entertainers may claim for clothing as these equate to ‘costumes’, however show presenters may not do so.
• ·     Barristers may not claim for dark clothing not customarily worn as these were needed anyway for warmth and decency
• ·     Actresses and aerobics teachers have rules specific to them, as do those businesses involved with sports instruction

If you require any further information regarding any allowable expenses please contact your client manager, alternatively you can read in further detail on the following link: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/guidance

Dress down summer

Bosses have been urged by the Trade Union Congress to take a more relaxed approach towards their employee’s dress codes.

It is suggested that British bosses should follow in the footsteps of the Japanese employers and relax the dress codes as the temperature rises. This is said to relax staff, making them more proactive as well as making savings to the energy bills by reducing the use of the air conditioning.

An estimated figure of £119m UK business set to lose to the 36c heat wave that occurred last Wednesday. (Figures from the Active Health Partners)

Congratulations to Janice Offer

We would like to congratulate Janice Offer our personal tax specialist for passing the Chartered Tax Adviser examination. As a result Janice becomes a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, which is the highest qualification in the tax profession.

Having only joined our practice in 2001 at the tender age of 18, Janice would have been one of the youngest people to sit the May 2006 exams and her success is testament to five years of very hard work.

Break from email newsletter.

Due to the editor of the newsletter taking a summer break there will be no email newsletter next week. The newsletter will continue to go out on the 9th August.