Our top tips on tax returns for contractors

You’d of had to be living under a rock for a while now to have avoided the nonstop reminders regarding the looming deadline.

A flurry of HMRC campaigns, tweets, informative articles and such have been blown around all platforms, online and otherwise, to make sure the message would be taken notice of and kept in the forefront of people’s minds.

Midnight of 31^st January indicates the deadline of filing a tax return to HMRC. File any later, and expect an unwelcome penalty of £100.

Self-employed people do not benefit from employee rights, which is undeniably a pitfall of the profession. Therefore, it’s definitely in your best interests to understand what you can claim as a contractor.

If you are a self-employed individual running a little late where said returns are concerned, you may want to pay extra attention to this article to find out six ways you can claim back as much money as possible.

1. Do you work from home? If so, when working from home, do you use a broadband service? If so, you can claim money back. Simply total the proportion of time you spend online that is dedicated to your business, and this is the amount you are entitled to claim back.
2. Do you have clothes with sole work purposes? Granted, a new suit may not be a valid request, but protective clothing and the likes are legitimate claims to get some money back when filing your tax return.
3. Computers, laptops, tablets, etc, can also be claimed. That is, if they are solely used for business purposes and nothing else. If not, the percentage of time used for professional purposes should be calculated and, in turn, this can be claimed back.
4. You may also claim some household bills back if you regularly work from home. Of course, dependant on proportions of time spent here. For example, if your legitimate office space genuinely accommodates half of your household, you have the right to claim half the costs of gas, water, electricity, etc, against tax.
5. Following on from the prior point, you could even claim part of your mortgage on these expenses!
6. This one may sound a little strange. If your home is utilised to conduct addition business, for example filling in your tax return, HMRC will add in a weekly £2 deduction.

So as much as we’re not commending your frankly poor time keeping and organisational skills, you can still benefit and file your return on time, with these bonuses alongside.