If you work from home because you have no other premises, then you can claim £6pw tax free use of home allowance as a contribution to your bills.
If you use a substantial part of your home for business, then it may be beneficial for the director to rent part of their home to the business. (As this is a commercial letting it is not applicable for the rent a room allowance)
You should have a rental licence between the director and the company showing the agreed rent and the hours available. The rent may be set at the level of the costs. This rent will reduce corporation tax for the business. The director will then show the rental income and costs on their income tax return. If the rent = costs, there will be no tax to pay. If income exceeds costs, then the director will pay income tax on the profit but there is no national insurance.
Costs that can be included are:
- Rent
- Ground rent
- Council tax
- Service charges
- Maintenance
- Utilities
- Security
- Cleaning
There may also be some relief for mortgage interest (but not repayments so do ensure that you split the monthly charge)
The costs should be apportioned across the available space by floor area or number of rooms (excluding kitchens and bathrooms). You can choose the most beneficial method, but you cannot keep changing it. In practice it is often simplest to allocate the household costs by the number of rooms.
If the room is used full time for business, then when you come to sell your home, you may have to pay capital gains tax on this portion of the property. In practice you will probably only use the room part time. If your spare room doubles as your office 5 days per week then 5/7 of the costs can be claimed to offset the rent from the business.