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We have worked with thousands of self-employed Marketing Consultants on their tax returns over the years. Through our years of experience, we have developed an in-depth, expert knowledge of the claimable tax expenses and deductions available to Marketing Consultants.
This article has been put together to help guide self-employed marketing consultants on what expenses that they can claim on their tax returns.
First of all, in order to identify your claimable expenses and deductions, it is important to understand the difference between a ‘Capital Item’ and a day-to-day expense:
· A capital item is regarded as an asset. This is generally a one-off purchase like a computer for social media marketing and email clients.
· An expense is an everyday expense such as travel, meals, and office rental fees.
The reason it is important to understand this is because capital assets are generally treated differently to day-to-day expenses for tax purposes. The type of expense affects how the item is claimed on your yearly tax return.
For capital expenses, under UK taxation law, the expenses must be claimed in line with the capital allowance. A capital allowance is claimed on capital expenses. The expenses are claimed spread over a period of time, rather than all at once on your tax return. For example, if you buy a car for work, you can claim the expense spread across a number of years.
Every-day-expenses can be claimed all at once on a single tax return.
MOVING ONTO THE SPECIFIC EXPENSES YOU CAN CLAIM AGAINST TAX:
Your expenses can include any expenses that are wholly work-related, such as stationary and marketing software. For expenses that are only part-work related, like a car, you can apportion the expense. This means that part of the expense can be claimed on your tax return, but not the whole expense.