Recently I was asked if they could do a tax return if they didn’t have any sales and just put expenses through. My initial thought was why go through the whole hassle of doing a tax return and the stress of meeting the self-assessment deadline if you don’t have to? With a new business, you can go back up to 7 years to claim your expenses and if you earn less than £1000, you can receive trading allowance before you even need to declare your income.

Technically though you could claim just expenses. There are some restrictions in that you would need to prove to HMRC your business is genuine. You need to do at least 10 hours a week with a view to making a profit. Continue reading “Claiming just expenses on your tax return” →