Self-employed - what is permissible to off-set against tax liability?

1) Are there any short-cuts or legal ways to avoid paying excessive tax?

2) Can one put a wife or partner, pay the national insurance and income tax and off-set this against the tax liability?

3) If a room in the private home is being used as an office, what percentage of electricity, gas, water, telephone and any other amenities can be off-set against tax?

4) What about car costs? Can you claim back a percentage of the road tax & insurance, fuel & maintenance costs if the care is being used both business as well as pleasure?

5) If an individual has to do another job to make ends meet, how is the tax calculated?

6) Would questions 1-5 also apply to the second job?

Any suggestions and ideas would be most welcome but must be within the rules & regulations laid down by the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise. Only realistic answers please. Many thanks

You need to include in your accounts all your income and outgoings in relation to the business. The law states that you can deduct all expenditure which is incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. So, yes, if one's partner is working in the business, their wages and on-costs should be included in the accounts in the same way as any other employee. If you are using a room at home exclusively for business, then you claim that proportion of the heat and light, eg if there are 3 bedrooms and 2 receptions, and one bedroom is used for business, then you claim one fifth (you dont count loos and kitchen). If you dont have a separate phone line, you claim a reasonable estimate of the business calls.
For the car, you either claim 40p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p thereafter, or you claim the business proportion of all the motoring costs - road tax, insurance, fuel, etc, etc.
Whatever you do, your records need to be accurate - its simpler to use a separate bank account and then you wont miss anything.
Not clear about your second job question - do you mean an employed job? In this case, the employer would deduct tax at basic rate and any adjustment would be made at the end of the year in the self assessment. If its a second self employed job, then you keep records as with the main business and include them in the self assessment in the normal way.

why dont you try reading your self assesment tax notes .. or even you r notes from customs & excise?

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