Advice Please....

r4chy

I have agreed to look over the books of one of my friends who runs a very small nail business before she does her own tax return! Anyway to get to the point, she started the business in April last year but had some prior expenses relating to starting the business such as courses etc. Can i put these into the P&L as startup costs and would my double entry be against capital? I have checked the HMRC website and it looks as though this will be ok, although it says that courses which are required to to run the business cannot be claimed as a business expense, but she could have technically started the business without doing the course....hmmmm hope all that made sense, any advise as to how to deal with this would be appreciated!

Cheers

Rach
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K H

it's my understanding that courses initially to learn a trade are not allowed but ongoing courses to get updated are allowable.

Psyche

I don't know about the courses, but generally expenses incurred related to the trade prior to going into business can be claimed going back up to seven years, and the VAT on assets can be claimed going back five years.

deanshepherd

I have never heard of that 5 year rule before. Do you have a link/reference?

Bluewednesday

I hadn't either so I did some research before replying and getting it wrong and did find something that said 5 years on pre trading assets but I think that was the actual expenditure not the VAT.

I thought it was 3 years for assets or stock (as long as they are still available on the day of registration) and 6 months for services