How to reclaim utilities as self employed (home office)

stillalive88

Hi everyone, just a simple question as I'm a bit stuck on this and my accountant doesn't seem to want to be really helpful.

I know that if you work at home that can count as home office so you can put down utilities and rents as expenses.
How to physically do this eludes me though, especially since all utilities have now gone paperless and bills don't really exist anymore?

How do I go about it?

Gloomtastic!

stillalive88 wrote: »

Hi everyone, just a simple question as I'm a bit stuck on this and my accountant doesn't seem to want to be really helpful.

I know that if you work at home that can count as home office so you can put down utilities and rents as expenses.
How to physically do this eludes me though, especially since all utilities have now gone paperless and bills don't really exist anymore?

How do I go about it?

First of all, find another accountant. There's 1000s out there, find one that appreciates your business.

In Ireland, you cannot claim rental of your home office as a business expense. Otherwise your personal self would need to pay tax on the income! You can claim utilities.

Heating/electricity bills. If you live in a six room house and one room is a home office then 1 sixth of each.
Mobile - up to 100%
Broadband - up to 100%
As for e-billing, you can save them as PDFs and download them to a folder on your hard drive/cloud account.

Trojan

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

First of all, find another accountant. There's 1000s out there, find one that appreciates your business.

+1000 on this. It's crucial.

I have an accountant I can trust completely and who knows his stuff - and makes sure I don't miss deadlines.

I think that's worth paying a little bit more for.

stillalive88

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

First of all, find another accountant. There's 1000s out there, find one that appreciates your business.

In Ireland, you cannot claim rental of your home office as a business expense. Otherwise your personal self would need to pay tax on the income! You can claim utilities.

Heating/electricity bills. If you live in a six room house and one room is a home office then 1 sixth of each.
Mobile - up to 100%
Broadband - up to 100%
As for e-billing, you can save them as PDFs and download them to a folder on your hard drive/cloud account.

Thank you for the kind response.

So the e-billing is fine even if it says "amount due" and not really "amount paid"? Still counts as a receipt?

I don't understand what you mean about rent? I am paying rent to someone else, isn't that an expense I have? Without the house I wouldn't have the office therefore I wouldn't be able to do the work?

Speedwell

Are the rules the same if you are a work-from-home employee in a rented house and one of your rooms is a home office (and used only as a home office)?

Pawwed Rig

In general it is not to be recommended as it puts the PPR CGT exemption at risk

stillalive88

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

In general it is not to be recommended as it puts the PPR CGT exemption at risk

I don't follow... I just googled and it seems to be about selling property? I don't own anything, I'm the tenant, I'm renting from another Landlord, does this still apply to me?

Mrs OBumble

stillalive88 wrote: »

I don't follow... I just googled and it seems to be about selling property? I don't own anything, I'm the tenant, I'm renting from another Landlord, does this still apply to me?

No, it doesn't.

It's not recommended for owners, for that reason. But fine for renters.

Mrs OBumble

Speedwell wrote: »

Are the rules the same if you are a work-from-home employee in a rented house and one of your rooms is a home office (and used only as a home office)?

No. If anything you should be claiming from your employer (who you are kindly providing free utilities to at the moment).

Pawwed Rig

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

No, it doesn't.

It's not recommended for owners, for that reason. But fine for renters.

There is a possible issue with renters turning a residential premises into a commercial whereby rates should be paid to the local council though.

stillalive88

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

There is a possible issue with renters turning a residential premises into a commercial whereby rates should be paid to the local council though.

Are you sure? A home office could convert itself into a commercial premise?? How would that physically come to be?

Pawwed Rig

stillalive88 wrote: »

Are you sure? A home office could convert itself into a commercial premise?? How would that physically come to be?

The point is you should not be operating on a commercial basis from a building zoned residential.

duploelabs

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

The point is you should not be operating on a commercial basis from a building zoned residential.

If you've converted parts of your building in to specialised permanent professional workplace, i.e installed a hydraulic jack in your garage or air handling in to your kitchen then you're subject to this. However simply putting in a work table with a laptop isn't considered enough for rezoning

tina1040

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

No. If anything you should be claiming from your employer (who you are kindly providing free utilities to at the moment).

She's claiming expenses against income for tax calculation so self employed and utililities and other expenses are being charged to the client via her hourly/weekly rate.

Pawwed Rig

duploelabs wrote: »

However simply putting in a work table with a laptop isn't considered enough for rezoning

So I can run a law business from my rental residential property with full deductibility for expenses?

2RockMountain

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

So I can run a law business from my rental residential property with full deductibility for expenses?

You'd want to check what your rental lease says about running a business, for a start. There is a big difference between 'working from home' and running a business that may involving having customers visiting.

duploelabs

2RockMountain wrote: »

You'd want to check what your rental lease says about running a business, for a start. There is a big difference between 'working from home' and running a business that may involving having customers visiting.

Or having Employees, certainly when I started my food business from home that was a major stickler. Still working a 7 day week :rolleyes:

Mrs OBumble

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

The point is you should not be operating on a commercial basis from a building zoned residential.

That applies equally to rented and owner-occupied premises.

Stheno

THere is some amount of misinformation in this thread in relation to employees working from home.

If you are e-working as defined by revenue, then it will not affect CGT if you own a house.

Speedwell, your employer can grant you tax free expenses of 3.20 per day towards heating etc.

All explained here, including the definitinon of an e-worker. http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/it69.html

Speedwell

Thanks, Stheno. I'll make sure not to spend it all in one place

Stheno

Speedwell wrote: »

Thanks, Stheno. I'll make sure not to spend it all in one place

With an average working year of 231 working days, if you work exclusively from home for all of that time, that's almost €740 tax free!

Speedwell

Stheno wrote: »

With an average working year of 231 working days, if you work exclusively from home for all of that time, that's almost €740 tax free!

Good point, you're right.

stillalive88

Can I just ask again

1- I'm a Sole Trader
2- It's web design, I don't need to do stuff like bake cakes or meet retail customers

-> Can I put rent or part of it off tax in any way?

2RockMountain

stillalive88 wrote: »

Can I just ask again

1- I'm SELF employed
2- It's web design, I don't need to do stuff like bake cakes or meet retail customers

-> Can I put rent or part of it off tax in any way?

Have you incurred any extra rent in order to provide space for your business?

Stheno

stillalive88 wrote: »

Can I just ask again

1- I'm SELF employed
2- It's web design, I don't need to do stuff like bake cakes or meet retail customers

-> Can I put rent or part of it off tax in any way?

Yes, see here http://www.revenue.ie/en/business/running/allowable-expenses.html

duploelabs

stillalive88 wrote: »

Can I just ask again

1- I'm SELF employed
2- It's web design, I don't need to do stuff like bake cakes or meet retail customers

-> Can I put rent or part of it off tax in any way?

and we will repeat again, Ask a competent accountant. Someone who has experience dealing with a home run business

Stheno

duploelabs wrote: »

and we will repeat again, Ask a competent accountant. Someone who has experience dealing with a home run business

Or even speak to Revenue themselves, I have always found them extremely helpful to deal with.

srsly78

stillalive88 wrote: »

Can I just ask again

1- I'm SELF employed

This means a big fat nothing. Are you a sole trader or a proprietary director? As others have already told you, get a better accountant - this is basic stuff.

stillalive88

srsly78 wrote: »

This means a big fat nothing. Are you a sole trader or a proprietary director? As others have already told you, get a better accountant - this is basic stuff.

I'll edit it, I thought it was self explanatory.

I'm a Sole Trader.

Stheno thanks for the tip! I'll ask Revenue as well. And will look for a new accountant...
Another thing, I know the link you gave me but to me is not clear: who is that addressed to? Proprietary Directors? Self Employed? Employers?
When it says "Wages, rent, rates, repairs, lighting and heating etc.", is it talking about rent as a residential rent? It's so vague

Gloomtastic!

stillalive88 wrote: »

I'll edit it, I thought it was self explanatory.

I'm a Sole Trader.

Stheno thanks for the tip! I'll ask Revenue as well. And will look for a new accountant...
Another thing, I know the link you gave me but to me is not clear: who is that addressed to? Proprietary Directors? Self Employed? Employers?
When it says "Wages, rent, rates, repairs, lighting and heating etc.", is it talking about rent as a residential rent? It's so vague

Double check with Revenue but we've had this question on here many times and it's always been a no, you cannot claim part of your personal rent as a business expense.

One way round it, I reckon, would be for you to have two leases - one personal and one business. With the rent being paid from both your personal account and business account respectively. Can't see any landlord going for that though......

Stheno

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Double check with Revenue but we've had this question on here many times and it's always been a no, you cannot claim part of your personal rent as a business expense.

One way round it, I reckon, would be for you to have two leases - one personal and one business. With the rent being paid from both your personal account and business account respectively. Can't see any landlord going for that though......

In the revenue link I referenced it talks about claiming expenses which are part for business use and part for private use, and rent is the first expense mentioned