Rent paid

Anne Boleyn

Hi

Hope someone can help. I have a couple of clients who are self employed and live in a flat attached to the home in which they both work. They pay rent of £200 a month. They have to live in the flat there is no choice.

Ignoring for the time being that this is more employment than self-employment would they be able to claim any of the rent against their income?

I'm grateful for any pointers or help given.

T.C.

My first instinct would be no. Why would they be able to claim for living expenses?

JodieR

What is it that they do?

Anne Boleyn

Hi
Thanks for the reply. They worked as housekeeper, driver general handyman etc. My gut instinct was no because it's just living expenses but it was the fact that they had to live there or forego the "jobs". So I wondered.

coojee

Something else to add into the mix. Could it be argued that in fact the flat is a beneift in kind and rather than getting an allowance against tax they should actually be paying more tax. If the flat is provided to them at less than the market rate (and £200 per month seems quite low) then they should be taxed on the difference as a benefit.

T.C.

Not if they are self-employed!

coojee

T.C. wrote: »

Not if they are self-employed!

But the OP did point out that actually the employment is more employed than self employed. I'd agree with that, if they're being told where to live then that would be one indicator to me that they're employed rather than self employed. Can they subsitute anyone else to do their work, do they get to decide what work to do and when, do they work for a number of different people etc etc. The answer to all these is probably no so they're more than likely employed.

PGM

Anne Boleyn wrote: »

Hi
They have to live in the flat there is no choice.

I thought when living on site was part of the job, that it wasn't a taxable benefit?

(ignoring the self employed issue)

Maybe it could be reflected in the wage rather than paid as rent..

T.C.

I agree with PGM - farm workers receive the 'house' as part of their wages. Perhaps this should be a similar principle.