Skittledmonkey You need to start off by submitting the CCA which you can find a template for here.

Yes... Just got the latest statement from Ambrose Wilson. Since my mother fully paid up the account last September they had been sneakily adding late payment charges and interest to the account of approx. £170. I just sent in the initial claim. They have cancelled the charges and interest so that the account on my mother's account is now £Nil. Not going to stop us claiming the rest of the late payment charges though!!!

A copy of the latest letter sent to Daxon.

Would you believe that I have received two letters from Daxon in quick succession. The first dated 18th July 2013 states: Four days later, Daxon sent another letter which states:- Any advice on my next move.

I am based in Essex. I reckon you could get an accountant for £200. Plus if you get a refund you could make the refund go to the accountant so that they deduct their fees before passing the remainder on to you.

Yes, I am an accountant.

Yes, you can carry back the losses and get a tax refund. So if your trading loss was £2,000 and you decided to take the loss back to 2009/10 then:- if you was a basic rate taxpayer in 2009/10 then you would probably receive a refund of £400 (i.e. £2,000 x 20%); if you was a higher rate taxpayer in 2009/10 then you would probably receive a refund of £800 (i.e. £2,000 x 40%). One other thing that should be mentioned is that you pay two types of tax on your self employment income - Income Tax and Class 4 national Insurance. You get loss relief for both. So if you carried back the trading loss and set it off against income tax on employment income, those same trading losses can be carried forward and set off against future profits for Class 4 NI purposes.

It is important that you claim everything you can and, thereby, increase the scale of the trading loss and, therefore, the tax refund. Given your earnings from employment are less than your personal allowance then you will get a refund of the PAYE suffered. However, you will not get a refund of the Employees NI you suffered as an employee. The one thing you need to consider is what you should do with the losses that you made from self employment. You have a number of options:- a. You can carry the losses forward and set off against future income from self employment; b. You can set the losses off against other income in the current year and the preceding tax year (2011/12). You certainly should not use the losses against the employment income in 2012/13 because the employment income is lower than your personal allowance; c. In the first FOUR years of trading, you can carry the losses BACK three years and set off against other income. You would carry back to the earliest year first (2009/10). That is why you should consult an accountant, to ascertain what the best method of loss relief would be.

You need to file you self assessment tax return by 31st October 2013 if by paper or 31st January 2014, if online. No, it is not as easy as that. For example, how are you claiming travel,especially for use of your private vehicle? If your income is lower than the VAT Registration Threshold (i.e. £79,000) then you have the choice of two ways of doing it:- Method A - You can claim the business percentage of the vehicle running costs (i.e. fuel, repairs, tax and insurance). Plus you can claim a capital allowance on the vehicle based on the market value of the vehicle when the trade commenced (which you can get from Glasses Guide) although you would have to deduct a percentage for private use; Method B - You can claim mileage allowance. You would get 45p per business mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p per mile thereafter. Method B tends to produce the best result but you would need to have kept mileage records to make the claim. There are other expenses you can claim which you may not be aware of. I would consult an accountant if I was you. You can reclaim the Class 2 National Insurance. But remember it counts towards your entitlement to State benefits and pensions so I it may be advisable not to make the claim.

Thanks for the advice, ims21. I have now received a copy of the credit agreement "... that would have been signed when the account was opened" from Daxon. As you can imagine, the agreement has not been signed by my mother. They have also rejected the preliminary claim that I have made to them based on the letter. Presumably, given that there is pretty obviously no signed credit agreement, their late payment charges are unenforceable. I have now written again to Daxon again pointing out this fact and giving 14 days to reply before I commence proceedings at the Small Claims Court.

In October last year, I settled both of the accounts my mother had with Ambrose Wilson and Daxon. However, I was surprised to find recently that the balance on the Ambrose Wilson account was almost £100. After looking at the statements, I was unsurprised to find that Ambrose Wilson have been adding late payment charges of £12 a month to my mother's account. I then decided to find out more and sent a SAR to both Ambrose Wilson and Daxon. I have just had the replies. Ambrose Wilson have charged my mother £480 in late payment charges. In the section for the Credit Agreement they have sent a piece of paper stating that there is no more information. I have sent them a request for a CCA. Daxon have charged my mother £240 in late payment charges and a further £12 for a 'Card Not Honoured' charge. They have also sent me a copy of the credit agreement "... that would have been signed when the account was opened". The agreement that they have sent does not include my mother's name and address or, indeed, her signature. I fully intend to reclaim the late payment charges on behalf of my mother. A number of questions:- 1. Should I do a CCA request to Daxon? 2. Is there a template to calculate the interest that can also be claimed on the late payment charges? 3. Is there a template for the letter to make the initial claim to Ambrose Wilson and Daxon?

You said that you kept diesel bills. Did you also keep any mileage records because you will invariably find that mileage allowance will lead to higher expenses than a business percentage of your vehicle's running costs. If you did not keep mileage expenses then you can claim the business proportion of the vehicle running costs (i.e. diesel, insurance tax and repairs). You can also claim a capital allowance on the vehicle. If it was owned before you commenced self employment then you need to base the allowance on the market value at the start of trade. You can obtain this value from a Glasses Guide or similar publication. You can also claim for use of home as office - this will be the total of utility bills (not telephone), property insurance, council tax and rent or mortgage interest divided by the number of rooms in the property times by the proportion of the day the room is used for business. You can claim for business calls on your home and mobile phone - best way it to get an itemised bill and mark the calls on these bills and claim for them. You can claim for parking fees but NOT fines. You can for cleaning but do not make the claim too large. Around £2.50 a week. Obviously, you can claim for tools and materials used in the projects worked.

I do a lot of CIS subbies and £250 is the fee I would charge for the job. The trouble is I would prefer to get my hands on you before you start trading. That way I can point you in the right direction especially on how to claim expenses. The most important expense for a subbie will tend to be motor expenses. I imagine that you have a bag full of petrol bills. However, you will claim an higher level of expense by claiming mileage allowances instead. Unless, you can re-construct what journeys you have made during the year, then it will be too late to use this method.

The OP is coming towards the end of his first year of trading, so I am trying to give some advice which will help him.

Obviously, you can claim any expense that is wholly and exclusively for the business (i.e. purchases of stock, postage, stationery etc). Two categories you should now about are motor expenses and use of home as office. MOTOR EXPENSES You have two options claiming for motor expenses:- a. you can claim for the business proportion of the vehicles running costs plus a capital allowance on the cost of the vehicle (or open market value of the vehicle when trade commenced which you can obtain from the Glasses Guide); or b. if your sales are less than the VAT registation threshold (currently £77k) then you can claim mileage allowance using HMRC approved rates of 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p per mile thereafter. Option b. tends to give the best result. USE OF HOME AS OFFICE You can can claim a reasonable propertion of the houserunning costs that represent the space and time in which your office operation occupies your home. Such expenses includes electricity, gas, water rates, council tax, rent, mortgage interest and home insurance. So basically you would add up all of the household costs and divide it by the number of rooms in your house (less kitchen and toilet). Then times by the percentage amount of time the room is used for your office operation (i.e. 8 hours a day use would mean that you use it 33% for office use).