Laundry allowance for beauty therapist

[SarahPBT]

Hi everyone. I'm a holistic and beauty therapist who works from home 16 a week. Although I've been trading a while, I'm still unsure how much I can claim as an expense for things like laundry, heating and lighting etc. I was putting a flat rate of £18 a month. Then last year £40 to include laundry as my washer and drier are never off. It's such a minefield. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[yoshilee]

Hi, I've struggled to work this out too. In year 1 of trading I used a flat rate of £15 per month for electricity/gas/water. For laundry/cleaning products I've used a flat rate of £2 per month. This seemed reasonable as I was just starting out and building a client base.

In year 2 which I'm doing my expenses/tax return at the moment, I'm unsure what to increase this to as I've been much busier in year 2. I'm working out how many extra treatments I am doing compared to year 1 as a % and increasing it, if that makes sense! My problem is I don't know if my original figure of £15 a month and £2 per month was even an accurate starting point!

I do a lot of laundry and use a dehumidifier for drying as I mainly do massage.

I would also appreciate any help/advice, thank you in advance.

 

[CFBS]

This page on HMRC explains what expenses a self employed person can claim.

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed

 

[yoshilee]

This page on HMRC explains what expenses a self employed person can claim.

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed

thank you, that's really helpful.