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Soul trader

17 November 2009
Issue: 4232 / Categories: Forum & Feedback , VAT
Can a sole trader claim tax relief for advice from a psychic if that advice then helps to improve his business profits?

I am in the process of preparing my client’s business accounts. Amongst the receipts were ones totalling about £1 000 for a series of monthly sessions with a spiritual adviser.

When I queried this with my client he advised me that his business had been going through a bad patch – profits have not been that healthy for the past couple of years – and at a friend’s suggestion he had gone to a psychic to seek advice on how he could turn things round.

This is something that advice from his bank manager had previously not been able to accomplish.

Do readers think that this expense is something that I can validly include in the accounts and not add back when preparing the tax computation?

My client is a sole trader but would the rules here have been any different if he had operated via a limited company?

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