Working from home can help you save money on start up costs and keep overheads down, although it can have an affect on your mortgage, your taxes and home insurance, depending on your home business, working from home can also turn your neighbours against you. The below guide will help you consider the problems that can come from a home based business helping you make your final decision and details some of the hidden costs involved.
* Checklist for working from home
* Health and safety
* Hidden costs
* Benefits of hidden costs
Checklist for working from home
Read carefully through your tenancy agreements and mortgage - some landlords or mortgage lenders could ban you from starting a home based business. If you are bringing in clients to your house or have staff working from home, you definitely might require extra insurance, plus additional insurance to cover office equipment and hardware. It is worth talking to your neighbours, mention your plan and discuss whether they have any objections, issues like car parking could cause problems. Structural changes to your home should be run by your local authority planning authority.
* Check contract and regulations with your mortgage lender, landlord and insurance agency.
* If considering building on your property, talk to your local planning department
* Check plans with your neighbours
Health and safety
To clear up any health and safety concerns with running your smarta.com/advice/premises/working-from-home/how-to-start-a-business-at-home home business you need to speak to the Health and Safety office in your locality. One of the first steps is to carry out a risk assessment, which will help towards spotting any potential hazards to either yourself, your clients, your staff or people in your home.
You can download a free risk assessment guide from the Health and Safety Executive at the hse.gov website.
* Discuss and check issues with your local authority's Health and Safety office
* Carry out a risk assessment
Hidden costs
Although you are saving cash on rent you should also consider added costs. Additional costs can include being charged business rate tax instead of standard council tax for your home business. If there is a room allocated specifically to work, you could also be liable for Capital Gains Tax if you were to sell you home.
Speak with the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) on 0845 602 1507 - they can answer your questions on business rates.
Call the Valuation Office
* You could be charged business rates and capital gains tax if you work from home.
Benefits of hidden costs
Its possible you could claim tax relief on your utility bills for the sections of the house exclusively used for your home business. You could also be able to claim back either VAT or capital allowances on purchases made for your business (computers, printers, office furniture etc). Read more on capital allowances and VAT in our small business guides.
* You could qualify for tax reliefs
Smarta gives free business advice on working from home and how to set up a smarta.com/advice/premises/working-from-home/how-to-start-a-business-at-home home based business.
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