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Income Tax Reliefs

Tax Allowances and Tax Reliefs – you can even claim them for home working – Let Blondie’s Accountants in Manchester maximise your tax reliefs.


Tax allowances


If you live in the UK on a day to day basis you are entitled to a basic   personal tax allowance, unless your income is over £100,000 a year. You may also be entitled to other allowances on top of the basic allowance. This means that some of your income, which would otherwise be taxable, will be tax-free.

If you are an employee and so are taxed under Pay As You Earn (PAYE), your personal allowances will be spread throughout the year, so that each week or month you will have a certain amount of tax-free income and then pay tax on the remainder.

If you are self-employed or have taxable income but are not working, your personal allowances will be taken into account when your tax bill is calculated after you have sent in your annual tax return or repayment claim.

For information about  tax allowances and who can claim which allowances, see Income tax allowance and amounts.

Tax reliefs


In addition to personal tax allowances, income spent on certain things, for example, professional subscriptions or the cost of the tools of your trade, can be deducted when calculating tax. This is known as tax relief on outgoings. These reliefs reduce the amount of your taxable income so you pay less tax.

Tax reliefs for employees are spread throughout the year in the same way as personal tax allowances. Tax reliefs for self-employed people and people who have taxable income but are not working are taken into account when their tax bill is calculated after they have sent in their annual tax return or repayment claim.

Tax reliefs on Home Working.

 

If you are employed specifically to work at or from home, and have no alternative but to do so, you may be able to get tax relief on some of your household expenses. You can go back several years to get the relief - the time you've got depends on whether you've previously sent in a Self Assessment tax return.

When you can get tax relief for household expenses

If you have to work from home you can get tax relief for the extra household expenses that you have to pay. Typically these extra expenses include:

  • the extra cost of gas and electricity to heat and light your work area
  • business telephone calls


You won't be able to get relief on domestic expenses that you're paying anyway - like your mortgage or council tax. You also won't be able to get relief for expenses that relate to both business and private use - such as your telephone line rental, or Internet access.


How much relief you can get


You can get either:


  • a flat rate deduction of £3.00 per week (from 2008-09) for each week that you've got to work at
  • home, this doesn't include the cost of business telephone calls
  • a larger amount if your extra expenses are higher than £3.00 - but you'll have to show how
  • you've calculated the figure


The rate for 2007-08 and earlier is £2.00 per week.


What if you volunteer to work at home?


You might volunteer to work at home under a 'homeworking arrangement'. A homeworking arrangement is an agreement with your employer that you'll work at home on a regular basis.

You don't have to work at home every day but there must be a regular pattern - for example two days at home and three days in your employer's premises each week. The work you do at home must be work that you're required to do as part of your employment.

If you've got an arrangement like that, your employer can contribute towards your expenses of working at home - £3.00 per week (from 2008-09) or more if you can show that you had to spend more than that. You won't have to pay tax and National Insurance contributions on the amount.

However, if your employer doesn't contribute you can't get tax relief for your expenses of working at home.

To find out much more on how you get Tax relief for Household expenses, contact your friendly local accountants in Manchester, Blondie’s

 

 

 

 

2010/11 and 2009/10
£

Personal allowance

- under 65

6,475

 

- 65 - 74*

9,490

 

- 75 and over*

9,640

(For 2010/11 reduce personal allowance by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income over £100,000.)

Married couple's allowance (relief at 10%)

- 75 and over*

6,965

 

- min. amount

2,670

Blind person's allowance

 

£1890

1,890

 

 

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