Can I deduct expense of maintaining garden myself?

[Jayne]

The Inland Revenue Taxation of Rents guide clearly indicates that you can deduct the cost of paying for a garden maintenance service from your rental income. This is my 1st time at completing a tax return and I as the landlord regualrly maintain the garden at my rental property myself rther than paying a gardener to do it. Can I still deduct it as an expense and if so what would be an expected sensible amount for an average size garden? Many thanks in advance :)

[johnjw]

Jayne
I think the problem with paying yourself is that you would have to declare the income and you would be charged tax.
John

[Tax Accountant]

Jayne
I think the problem with paying yourself is that you would have to declare the income and you would be charged tax.
John
John, yes, but not quite. Basically, one can't pay wages to oneself. Any profits is effectively one's wages anyway.

Ramnik

[Jayne]

Thanks for the replies ... so basically all I can allow for are any materials I have purchased but not my own time. For example, if I had to buy a lawnmower to cut the grass or decorating equipment when I painted the interior of the house. I have kept all the receipts!

Also a related issue - I can claim travel expenses via car incurred in renting the property (e.g. visitng to collect rent, reset burglar alarm, etc.) but how do I work this out? Does it include a propertion of the following or just some of these based on mileage covered: petrol, road tax, insurance, depreciation of vehicle. Again the IR guide does not go into a lot of details!

Many thanks folks .... don't you just love the taxman! ;)

[MrShed]

All of the above. There is probably, I would guess, some kind of official figure for it. But, it will probably be in the region of the amount you get paid by companies for such expenses, which is around 30 to 40p a mile.

[choices]

sounds a bit greedy to me, taking rent then looking for maintanence money as well, will you do all other repairs, painting, decorating etc too? Maybe the rent is too low if you have not covered some of these costs.

[Tax Accountant]

Thanks for the replies ... so basically all I can allow for are any materials I have purchased but not my own time. For example, if I had to buy a lawnmower to cut the grass or decorating equipment when I painted the interior of the house. I have kept all the receipts!

Also a related issue - I can claim travel expenses via car incurred in renting the property (e.g. visitng to collect rent, reset burglar alarm, etc.) but how do I work this out? Does it include a propertion of the following or just some of these based on mileage covered: petrol, road tax, insurance, depreciation of vehicle. Again the IR guide does not go into a lot of details!

Many thanks folks .... don't you just love the taxman! ;)

Reply to 1st paragraph above: Strictly, you casnnot claim for the cost of the 1st lawn mower as this is a capital equipment expenditure, unless this is for the replacement of an old one.

Reply to 2nd paragraph above: Travel expenses can be claimed at 40p per mile. The rate reduces to 25p per mile after 10,000 miles but this is unlikely to apply to you.

Ramnik