MC Tax Expense?

[Moon]

I am self-employed, been researching whether medical expenses can be counted as an expense from my earnings. This turns out to be a grey area, you can claim for medical expenses if "the expense must be directly related to your business activities" this difficulty is MC is not soley for my ability to work I also do it in my leisure time, which makes it not tax deductible. But if I don’t consume MC I am not able to work because i am too messed up mentally and in too much physical pain.

Anyone else dealt with this? Any advice? Thoughts?

Look at the cost we are paying for MC its criminal, and should therefore be tax deductible for self employed people. This country is backwards in its thinking. My medicine enables me to work and function ‘normally’, therefore I feel it should be an allowable expense.

 

[GrownHealth]

Going off what you've said It sounds like it is tax deductible because if not used you would not be able to perform your business activities and you may consume medicine in your non working hours as this is needed as part of keeping you up and going I'd assume .
I do know @Cannabis is Medicine recently won a claim against her local council on disability related expenditure and it meant she was able to offset part of her care charges because of medical cannabis expenditure was considered so the recognition is starting to appear and I hope this works out as it seems common sense as you are an asset to the business that needs maintaining putting it in non human terms

 

[node]

I am self-employed, been researching whether medical expenses can be counted as an expense from my earnings. This turns out to be a grey area, you can claim for medical expenses if "the expense must be directly related to your business activities" this difficulty is MC is not soley for my ability to work I also do it in my leisure time, which makes it not tax deductible. But if I don’t consume MC I am not able to work because i am too messed up mentally and in too much physical pain.

Anyone else dealt with this? Any advice? Thoughts?

Look at the cost we are paying for MC its criminal, and should therefore be tax deductible for self employed people. This country is backwards in its thinking. My medicine enables me to work and function ‘normally’, therefore I feel it should be an allowable expense.

I'm thinking you should get advice from self empoyed / contractor forums as its def medication and you need it to be able to work. There will be many in same boat with all kinds of unlicensed/licensed meds they have to pay for and it shouldn't matter its MC.

 

[GrownHealth]

I'm thinking you should get advice from self empoyed / contractor forums as its def medication and you need it to be able to work. There will be many in same boat with all kinds of unlicensed/licensed meds they have to pay for and it shouldn't matter its MC.

That's what I was thinking it's more like a therapy like physio or whatever .

 

[node]

@Moon respect to you mate working if you don't feel well, esp working for yourself. I've had to do that and its very hard, esp older I got.

 

[Moon]

Thanks you two @GrownHealth @node I think I will pursue this via some self employed forums and will try and speak to an accountant I semi know. I might even ask HMRC.
If you can't work without medication it should be tax deductable is how I feel about it. It would make a huge difference to me as I'm struggling with the monthly MC bill, like we all are!

 

[node]

Thanks you two @GrownHealth @node I think I will pursue this via some self employed forums and will try and speak to an accountant I semi know. I might even ask HMRC.
If you can't work without medication it should be tax deductable is how I feel about it. It would make a huge difference to me as I'm struggling with the monthly MC bill, like we all are!

Welcome + also anything to get that tax back, you might find other ways there too. I wouldn't even mention its MC when you ask as it may confuse the issue. It is another med after all. Depending upon your numbers and circumstances it might be worth investigating making a tiny ltd co and employ yourself. See what they say.

 

[node]

@Moon have a look here https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed/staff I think meds would come under benefits

 

[Delta 9]

These are the growers sundial from canada who grow for 4C Labs and this was 1 of its videos on their site. Although in canada i dont see why this wouldnt apply here. You can even claim for plants and seeds lol.

 

[GrownHealth]

Hopefully this is what the future holds when things have developed/matured like in Canada because all said and done it's a ridiculous expense for what it is!

 

[BudGuy]

The tax rules are confusing, because on the one hand they say that an expense must be "wholly and exclusively" for the purposes of running the business to qualify as tax deductible.

On the other hand, if you for example, work from home, then even though your electricity bills are not "wholly and exclusively" for the purposes of running the business, you can make a qualified estimate of the proportion of the electricity bill which IS "wholly and exclusively" for the business, for example by dividing the floor area of your office space by the area of your whole house and dividing your working hours by the total hours in a week and applying those ratios to find the "business portion" of your bills.

So on that basis, I'd say as long as you make a reasonable attempt to calculate the % of your MC use which is "wholly and exclusively" for work, then you can claim for that proportion of it, for example by dividing the number doses you consume during working hours by the number of doses you consume in total and applying that proportion to your total bill. As long as you keep a record of it and can show working for your estimate and it is reasonable, I don't see how they could complain. I doubt they're going to go to court to somehow prove that you would have had those doses anyway regardless of work.

But I am not an accountant or tax lawyer, just a fellow self-employed.

It's probably not a huge amount of money though. If say 20% of your use is for work and you spend £300/month on your prescription, then you'll claim £60 a month as an expense or £720/year, which will save you 20% of that if you're in the 20% tax bracket which is £144/year. So on the downside it's not going to save you a whole lot, but on the plus side it won't be a complete pain in the neck to pay it back if they pursue you for it, and self employment records only go back 5 years so £720+interest is the worst they could do you for if you don't "get away with it".

 

[BudGuy]

@Moon have a look here https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed/staff I think meds would come under benefits

That's only if you have employees of the business, then the cost of THEIR benefits paid by the business is an expense. MC is not a benefit provided by the business to an employee, so it wouldn't qualify under that category.

to be honest MC wouldn't qualify under any of the categories listed there, but I don't think that's an exhaustive list. It says here "https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed" allowable business expenses include: and then it lists off some categories, but doesn't say that list is exhaustive, and I don't think it realistically could be because the government can't possibly predict all the categories of business expense that could apply to every possible business out there.

So I think as long as you feel confident making the case that some doses of your MC are used wholly and exclusively in order to deliver the services of your business, then you could claim that proportion of the MC bills. I'm just not sure the payoff is worth it in most cases.

 

[LunaDracarys]

Thanks you two @GrownHealth @node I think I will pursue this via some self employed forums and will try and speak to an accountant I semi know. I might even ask HMRC.
If you can't work without medication it should be tax deductable is how I feel about it. It would make a huge difference to me as I'm struggling with the monthly MC bill, like we all are!

Do you think CAB might be helpful for advising on this topic?

 

[Moon]

I have now asked an accountant who I now quite well to look into this, will feed back when I get some answers.

 

[druseph]

I have now asked an accountant who I now quite well to look into this, will feed back when I get some answers.

How did you get in with this line of enquiry?

 

[Moon]

How did you get in with this line of enquiry?

Not too well. It's a grey area of tax law. I would have to prove what percentage of my script enables me to work, and what percentage is for leisure. It's not really doable easily. And tax folk may disagree it enables work.

 

[Delta 9]

Not too well. It's a grey area of tax law. I would have to prove what percentage of my script enables me to work, and what percentage is for leisure. It's not really doable easily. And tax folk may disagree it enables work.

tell them 75% and the other 25% is for sleep when home as no time for leisure and dont use it for leisure just medicine. You take 75 % of meds to work and leave 25% for bed. Video usage if need be if thats the only way to prove

 

[node]

How did you get in with this line of enquiry?

Welcome mate

 

[node]

Not too well. It's a grey area of tax law. I would have to prove what percentage of my script enables me to work, and what percentage is for leisure. It's not really doable easily. And tax folk may disagree it enables work.

Evening mate, this sounds very odd to me. For example if a person is disabled and needs meds to be able to work then it shouldn't matter its MC. But thank god I'm not an accountant so can't advise lol but what I mean is this situation must of existed with normal meds...

 

[Moon]

Evening mate, this sounds very odd to me. For example if a person is disabled and needs meds to be able to work then it shouldn't matter its MC. But thank god I'm not an accountant so can't advise lol but what I mean is this situation must of existed with normal meds...

She said its the same grey area over normal meds being tax exempt. I will keep researching. We need an accountant on MC and hanging here.