Sole Trader Question - Office Rental

Up_Mayo

Hi All

I've recently starting operating as a sole trader. I'm currently renting accomodation, a two bed apartment @ €700 per month. Can I claim a portion of the rent paid as a business expense? If say for instance, I set up/use the spare room as an office? Can I also claim light/heat etc........? What would be a reasonable amount to claim on rent, if allowed?


Tks

ircoha

Up_Mayo wrote:

Hi All

I've recently starting operating as a sole trader. I'm currently renting accomodation, a two bed apartment @ €700 per month. Can I claim a portion of the rent paid as a business expense? If say for instance, I set up/use the spare room as an office? Can I also claim light/heat etc........? What would be a reasonable amount to claim on rent, if allowed?


Tks

the one thing I remember about this is that u need to be able to show where the trade is taking place from. In the case of a business being run from a house, then a room needs to be set aside and kitted out as an office: u can apportion costs of esb/ heat/rent/ fone etc but dont be greedy.

The chances are that they wont examine u but if they do....
The issue here is that while there are restrictions on how far back u can go with claiming arrears etc, they can go back to Adam and Eve is they think there is something funny. While they are not widely promoted, the powers the revenue have now are very scarey in scope, without any redress system.

the esb is easy to do: just get the power consumption of ur pc/ printer/bulbs/ etc in the office and do the math for say 8/10 hrs a day

Mikeyy

Yeh this is pretty straight forward but its good advice to not get too greedy. Ym expereince of Revenue is that they are fine unless they smell a rat or even a potential rat.
Ive done the work from home thing and what Ive done in the past is break up the rent and utilities by a percentage and say with the rent pay it in two seperate cheques or standing orders, one from you the person and the other form you the business, this creates a "real" seperation.
Usually the percentage is worked out roughly using the square footage, so if your apartment is 700 square feet and the room your using is 100 sq feet its one seventh.
Try as much as possible and keep expenses seperate, so if you have a company cheque book or credit card use it as much as you can to pay for day to day items, that way the blurry line between you and your business is a bit more defined.
Best of luck and a word of advice, as soon as you can afford it, get an office space or even office share. You need a home life that doesnt include work.