Good one The shinner - like your style !!!
Me wife keeps telling me to book her designer gear too but me somehow thinks the tax man wont allow the £400 LV bag I bought her for her 40th in June !!!!
The thing with the books is its ok till u get auditted and then on the first occassion you can plead ignorance but what then ? I dont know who said the IR cant be bothered to investigate businesses like w/c but thats not true. I have a SS fraud investigator living 3 doors from me and she secialises in smaller businesses and has followed round people like leaflet droppers, home nail manicurists etc - my point is dont assume we are seen as an industry that is too small to be investigated NOT TRUE we are the classic target because anyone can do it for a few weeks to earn some undeclared money whilst on the dole etc.
Unfortunately the wife is too honest with her book-keeping since our audit and wont even claim the cost of a stamp if it cant be proven as a business letter !!!
Great thread though Paul - you opened a can of w/c worms here (just like mine on Poaching new business).
I play it straight too. If my accountant Oks it and if I could show that an expense is reasonable, then I book it as a tax deductible. I don't really wear Gucci clothes
. Couldn't afford them. More like jeans from T J Hughes.
Seriously though, I reckon a lot of people miss out by not booking miscellaneous items. A proportion of my washing powder, padlocks for securing ladders against theft, garage rental where I keep my tools and sometimes my van, a pair of scissors for cutting squeegee rubbers (though I've since learned that it's better to use a blade), a proportion of computer bits - especially ink and paper, an occasional box of biros, an annual £30 parking permit (I live in a resident only parking zone), a guillotine and a stapler (I print my own leaflets, bills etc). In years gone by I have booked a fan (for the room I use as my office), a P.O. Box (and redirection) as I lived at a dodgy address for a while, a proportion of the occasional jetwash for my van, and even the cost of the advert when I wanted to sell my old van and replace it with a newer one.
All of the above were perfectly valid, legal business expenses. I added up my receipts one year for items of £5 or less. It came to about £400 - saving me around £90 on my tax bill. Not a huge amount but I feel it was worth it. These days that's only 2 and a bit fill ups for my diesel tank though. However, I do play it straight both ways. I book everything I can and I play it straight on the income side of things too. That also works to my advantage anyway because I may want another mortgage in a couple of years time.