Readers’ forum: Should I use white space for routine estimates?

The recent employment law case of Stuart Harris Associates Limited v A Goburdhun (tinyurl.com/GOBURDHUN) has raised some questions in my mind about the use of estimates. Typically with my smaller sole trader clients I have used estimates for such things as goods taken for own use business proportions of motoring expenses and use of home as office. Sometimes I have also used estimates to fill in gaps where for example the client may only have retained ten out of 12 months’ worth of phone bills.

I’ve always been conservative in these estimates and I don’t believe that HMRC would have a problem with any of them if though it never seems to happen these days there were to be investigations. It has never been my practice to include a white space disclosure on a client’s return for such routine matters ...