Many business owners will work from home at some point during a typical week, even if they have a office or industrial unit that they trade from.

 

In these cases it is possible to claim a proportion of household expenses as business.

 

The normal method is to add up all household expenses (such as rent or mortgage interest, rates, lighting and heating etc) and then apply a reasonable percentage that reflects business use.

 

For example say a business owner has total household expenditure amounting to £10,000 per year and that a home office represented approximately 10% (in terms of floor area) of the home. In broad terms the business owner could make claim for £10,000 x 10% = £1,000 as business expenditure and offset that amount against taxable profit.

 

It is useful to keep a note of exactly what work is completed at home as this will help to justify the claim

 

You can make a backdated claim, even if you don't have detailed records for the past.