Use of home

There are two main ways of calculating use of home. If there is only minor use, for example writing up the business records at home, you may put through a reasonable estimate with little risk of dispute by HMRC. Needless to say, it should be consistent with your household utility bills though.

If you were based from home, then you could apportion the household bills such as gas, electric, water etc by dividing the total costs over the number of rooms, and multiplying that figure by the number of rooms used for business purposes.

In order to satisfy tax law, when part of the house is being used for the business then that must be the sole use for that part at that time. Thus if the part of the home used for business purposes is simultaneously used for some other non-business purposes, then no deduction is available.

As you can see from the above, if you don't work from home regularly, you may be using the first method. If you are working regularly from home, then it would be advantageous to use the second, i.e. apportionment method. 

In practical terms, you will need to be seen to be applying common sense to your claim, for example, if you only write up your books at home, there would be a far smaller charge than if you were working each day from home and treating it like an office. Although there is no fixed proportion of costs for particular trades, there is an expectation of what use of home will amount to. Any enquiries from HMRC will be more likely when the amount of use of home claimed is significant and inconsistent with the nature of the trade. If the room has a dual purpose, you must be aware that the room should not be used for any other purpose whilst it is being used for business purposes. 

Each case will be different, so if you would like advice in this area, please feel free to contact your local TaxAssist Accountant.

Date published 5 Dec 2012

This article is intended to inform rather than advise and is based on legislation and practice at the time. Taxpayer’s circumstances do vary and if you feel that the information provided is beneficial it is important that you contact us before implementation. If you take, or do not take action as a result of reading this article, before receiving our written endorsement, we will accept no responsibility for any financial loss incurred.