It’s very likely that you’ll be driving at some point, whether to team meetings, Slimming World Head Office or even into town if travelling specifically for business purposes.
Unless you have a vehicle specifically for Slimming World purposes, it is not likely that you’ll be proportioning all of your car costs – this can get difficult if your car is generally used for personal/family purposes, but can still be done.
If your vehicle is specifically for Slimming World use only, you can claim things such as:
- Fuel
- Repairs and servicing
- Vehicle Insurance
- Breakdown Insurance
The actual vehicle (cost of purchasing) should be classed as a Capital Expense – as it is something ‘larger’ which should last longer than a year.
Mileage
You may clock up some miles during your self employment. If you’re planning to claim for miles instead of proportioning all of the above costs using the simplified route. This is recommended for most people if you’re using a normal car for Slimming World purposes. Under the simplified expenses route, you can claim as follows:
- First 10,000 miles: 45p per mile
- Above 10,000 miles: 25p per mile
Examples of eligible mileage:
- Travelling to a team / district meeting
- Driving to head office for training
- Driving to conduct business activity (e.g. banking)
- Driving to a different (e.g. relief) group for observation, cover or to visit for business purposes (i.e. not as a member)
Note: You’re not able to claim for travel to your own group – HMRC class this as ‘travel between home and work’. Any fines which you receive cannot be claimed (as these are civil and against the person, not the business), although charges for any tolls or charges such as the Congestion Charge can be claimed when not ‘travelling to work’ (e.g. for training).
In order to claim for your business mileage, you will need to check that your vehicle is legally insured for the purpose of business travel. Some insurance policies may not include self employed travel. However, if you’re claiming for mileage, you are unable to claim for business car insurance as the mileage allowance is designed to include this amount in the per mile amount.