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MumsClub mum starts petition over childcare costs
 Cara Sayer has been in business for two years and believes it is unfair that business owners cannot claim childcare as a legitimate expense. Last weekend she put her words into action and put up an online petition to call for childcare to be tax deductible.
Cara’s toddler daughter, Holly, goes to the local nursery in the mornings to enable Cara to get on with some work. “I'm reluctant to do it, but it's a choice between being able to work or not being able to”.
“It's so unfair that there are so many benefits for you if you are not working. I have worked so hard and paid taxes most of my life, but I am unable to offset a genuine business expense against tax.”
Cara exhibits a great deal at various baby and trade shows around the country. These are all key sales events for her business, and she is able to claim accommodation, travel and food costs, but not the cost of having to pay for childcare to look after Holly. Cara’s own mum, Mary, works with Cara at the shows so is unable to help out with childcare. “This expense is necessary for my business as it is crucially important for my business that I attend such exhibitions”.
“Me using my car to drive up to the exhibition is no different to me having to put my daughter into nursery.”
Cara says childcare support such as tax credits don't work because they are too inflexible for business owners who may need extra childcare to attend any number of business events.
Snoozeshade
Cara says she works from 9-5.30pm on the business, and often much longer. She started the business after giving up a well paid job in marketing, PR and events to start IVF. She worked through her pregnancy as a small business consultant and was planning to be a full-time mum. However, she got the idea for SnoozeShade seven months after the birth of her daughter in 2009.
The company sells shades for children's buggies which mean they can stay asleep instead of being distracted by light. The idea has brought several awards, including, most recently, the Best Business Mum Award.
Cara says this has not come without a lot of work on her part and subsequent guilt. “I didn't think I would suffer guilt, but last year I had a bit of a breakdown. I wanted to be perfect on all fronts. I was working myself into the ground, rarely seeing my husband and trying to be a good mum to my daughter. If the government recognised childcare as a legitimate business cost it would validate what people like me are trying to do and mums would not feel so bad about it and that we are not using childcare out of choice” she says.
She adds that many mums who set up businesses are also their own childcare providers. In essence, she says, they are doing two full-time jobs if they want to build their business. Business dads do not have the same issues to deal with as their female partners tend to provide the childcare. “It is hard to run a business and be a full-time parent” she says.
You can sign Cara's online petition here.
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