The short answerWant to pay less tax? Claim your business costs. You only pay tax on your profit, not on everything that comes in.
What counts? Anything you spend "wholly and exclusively" for your business. If something is partly personal, you claim the business share.
Want to check your own costs? See what you can claim →
On this page · 3 sections
- Costs you can usually claim
- Costs you can't claim
- The easy way to get it right
Costs you can usually claim
- Stock and materials you buy to sell or use in your work.
- Travel for work — either your actual costs, or HMRC's flat mileage rate of 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a car and 25p after that. That first-10,000 rate rose from 45p to 55p on 6 April 2026. (Normal commuting to a regular workplace doesn't count.)
- Working from home — a share of your bills, or HMRC's simplified flat rate of £10, £18 or £26 a month depending on how many hours you work from home.
- Phone, internet and software used for the business.
- Tools and equipment, work clothing like uniforms or safety gear, and business insurance.
- Accountancy and other professional fees — yes, our fee is itself an allowable expense.
Prefer to keep it simple? If you earn under £1,000 from self-employment, the
trading allowance lets you ignore expenses entirely and just not declare it. Above that, you can either claim the flat £1,000 allowance or your actual expenses — whichever is higher.
Costs you can't claim
- Anything purely personal, or the personal share of a mixed cost.
- Everyday clothing (even if you only wear it for work).
- Entertaining clients.
- Fines and penalties, such as parking or speeding tickets.
- The cost of getting to and from a regular place of work.
The easy way to get it right
The biggest wins come from claiming everything you're entitled to without straying into what you're not — which is exactly where a real person checking your figures pays for itself. Keep your receipts (a photo is fine), and we'll sort the rest.
Free calculator · no sign-upWhat can you claim as a self-employed expense?
Tick off what you have spent and see what actually comes off your bill — including the things people try to claim and cannot.
Open the calculator →
Never miss an expense again
Send us a photo, we do the rest — from £25 a month.
