Hi buttonmoon - I've read all the responses re whether or not an accountant is worth the money. My accountant is worth his weight in gold to me, he answers all my 'silly' questions about tax, what I can offset against profit, what forms I need to fill in etc etc. One HUGE benefit of an accountant is if you ever need credit, ie a mortgage, bank loan, HP etc they will always ask for your accountants details if you are self-employed - if you don't have one then they will want to see 3 years' accounts, so if you've only just started out self employed then you are counted as a big risk.
You mentioned about how much to claim for petrol etc - well I keep all my receipts for petrol then just offset a percentage of what is business use ie 30% of your petrol each week is business use. Hope that helps!
