Self Employed Locum Expenses

Re: Self Employed Locum Expenses

Hannah Wynne Richards — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 09:59:28 GMT

When I was doing locums (sick parents ) I employed an accountant-worth it for both tax savings, and peace of mind

Wynne

Re: Self Employed Locum Expenses

vs0u — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:13:33 GMT

Think it's ok because it's not a fixed place of work, so is not actually commuting.

You wouldn't be able to claim travel to a fixed place of work for example if you were a self employed builder travelling to your office but you would be able to claim for travel to different building sites where you were doing some work.

Also if you spend more than 40% of working hours at one place for more than 2 years that would count as permanent and be not tax deductible for travel purposes. (Wouldn't count as self employed for locum vets in that case anyway as the only clause we have for being self employed is working at lots of different places for a short time. As we don't risk our own money, have the right to delegate work to someone else, provide our own equipment, or decide when to turn up to work!)

Re: Self Employed Locum Expenses

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:39:26 GMT

[quote user="alison howell"] mileage at 40p/mile (from home to job), is my understanding[/quote]

Be very careful here. Commuting is not a legitimate business mileage claim. If you are using your car for work (house calls, farm calls etc) then it's claimable, but commuting is not.

Re: Self Employed Locum Expenses

Mark Frost — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:28:30 GMT

I am PAYE, but I claim money back via my tax code on all professional subs, (I pay them myself from my wage), so RCVS, BVA, BSAVA, SPVS - if anyone hasn't claimed before I think you can claim for up to 6 years previously. I assume a similar thing applies for self employed...

Re: Self Employed Locum Expenses

Sylvia P — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:54:31 GMT

Hi,

You can claim anything that is completely to do with your job, from my understanding, but what I would strongly advise is get your self an accountant who specialises in locum vets. I use Alan Gibson, and have been very pleased with his service. Excellent advice, told me what to do and how to do it, and very good value for money. He has hundreds of vets, and knows what looks "normal" to the IRD....my old accountants had no other vets and never claimed all my CPD as no other profession spends as much as we do on CPD apparently...they also made me type all my expenses out in a spread sheet for them, so they never looked at my actual receipts.....

Alan was horrified at the thought of a mere vet attempting anything like paper work, so I just shove everything in a box, and send it up to him, and he charged me less than half what my old accountant did.

A good accountant is a real investment. They will save you heaps in tax, but also make sure you pay what you have to, so you can live without worrying about the IRD turning up on your doorstep.

You also need to think about a contract....

Re: Self Employed Locum Expenses

vs0u — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 01:00:21 GMT

Not sure about limited company - have heard it's good if you are earning more than £35000 or so. Also apparently you can register for VAT and then get to keep some. Seemed a bit fiddly to me.

Expenses - you can claim for EITHER the proportion of cost of car, servicing, etc that is used for work OR mileage at 40p/mile (from home to job), is my understanding. Also bike miles at 20p/mile.

Also you can claim for using home as office - think it's about £3 a week or similar - meant to be a proportion of the cost of rent etc as the time the office use is for.

Also any work clothes, stationery, phone bills, CPD and travel to get to CPD.

Not done a tax return yet but don't think they are meant to be that difficult...

Re: Self Employed Locum Expenses

bob lehner — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:59:55 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]Get professional advice. A number of practices are already being hit with penalties where HMRC does not believe someone is a true locum[/quote]

I agree. There was a very good article in 'In Practice', (2006), 28, 412-415, which spelt out all the measures you should take if you want to be self-employed. In particular a written contract between you and your practices, spelling out all terms and conditions of the relationship between you and them is essential. Working for the same practice repeatedly is more likely to be a problem - but the practice is probably the one more at risk of heavy penalties if the IR investigates.

Re: Self Employed Locum Expenses

Bob Russell — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:06:09 GMT

Be very careful. Speak to a good accountant. HMRC are gunning for those 'locums' that they believe are working regularly for practices and therefore working part time even if part-time for several practices in which case you should be on PAYE.

Get professional advice. A number of practices are already being hit with penalties where HMRC does not believe someone is a true locum.