The short answer
If you are self-employed you can take the running costs of your trade off your profits before tax, as long as each cost is wholly and exclusively for the business: your van and fuel or 55p a mile, tools, materials, workwear, insurance, your phone, your website and training that keeps your skills current. Every £100 you claim saves £26 at the basic rate: 20% income tax plus 6% Class 4 National Insurance (40% plus 2% at the higher rate).
Every cost of running your trade can come off your profit before income tax and Class 4 National Insurance are worked out, as long as it passes one test. This guide lists what a tradesperson can claim, category by category, with the things HMRC says no to, the flat rates you can use instead of adding up running costs, and what each claim is actually worth. The full list is also a printable checklist.
Download the checklist (PDF, one page, 7 KB)
It is written for sole traders and partners. A limited company claims its costs against Corporation Tax under different rules.
The rule: wholly and exclusively
An expense is allowable if you paid it wholly and exclusively for the business. A box of screws for a job passes. A phone you use for work and for home passes in part: you claim the business share and nothing else. gov.uk's example is a £200 phone bill with £70 of business calls, of which you claim £70.
Two things stop a claim altogether. Money you take out of the business for yourself is never an expense. And if you use the £1,000 trading allowance instead of claiming expenses, you cannot claim any expenses at all that year, so the allowance only makes sense if your real costs are lower than it.
The full allowable expenses list by category
These are gov.uk's categories, with what each one means on the tools. Under each is the line gov.uk draws. The checklist has the same list on one page to tick through before you file.
Office, phone, software and equipment
- Your phone and internet bills (the business share)
- Job management, invoicing and accounts software
- Stationery, printing and postage
- Tools and equipment, as an expense under the cash basis
- A share of home running costs if you do the paperwork there
Not the personal share of your phone or home bills. gov.uk on this heading
Van, fuel and travel
- Fuel, insurance, repairs, servicing, road tax and breakdown cover
- Parking and tolls on business journeys
- Or the flat rate per business mile instead of the running costs
- Hotel rooms and meals when a job keeps you away overnight
Not fines or penalty charges, and not private driving. gov.uk on this heading
Workwear and PPE
- Safety boots, hi-vis, hard hats, gloves and eye protection
- Overalls and branded workwear with your logo
Not everyday clothes, even if you only wear them for work. gov.uk on this heading
Staff and subcontractors
- Wages, bonuses and pensions for anyone you employ
- Employer's National Insurance
- Subcontractors you pay, gross of any CIS you deduct
- Agency labour
Not your own drawings, and not your own tax or National Insurance. gov.uk on this heading
Materials and stock
- Materials you buy and fit on customers' jobs
- Stock you keep for jobs: fittings, fixings, consumables
- Skip hire, waste disposal and plant hire for a job
Not materials for your own home or private use. gov.uk on this heading
Insurance, bank charges and professional fees
- Public liability, tools and van insurance
- Bank charges, card fees and interest on business loans
- An accountant's fees for your business accounts
Not loan repayments, and not the cost of preparing and sending your Self Assessment return. gov.uk on this heading
Website, advertising, memberships and registrations
- Your website: design, hosting and domain
- Directory and lead platform fees, and advertising
- Trade body membership related to your trade
- Registration and scheme fees your work needs, such as Gas Safe or a competent person scheme
- Printed leaflets and adverts
Not entertaining customers or suppliers, and not gym membership. gov.uk on this heading
Training courses
- Refresher courses and assessments for skills you already use
- Courses on new rules or technology in your trade
- Assessments that keep a qualification or card current
Not training to start a new business or move into an unrelated one. gov.uk on this heading
Van, fuel and mileage: actual costs or 55p a mile
You have two ways to claim for a van or car, and you choose per vehicle.
Actual costs. Fuel, insurance, repairs, servicing, road tax, breakdown cover, parking and tolls, split between business and private use if the vehicle does both.
The flat rate. 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p a mile after that, instead of the running costs. The rate rose from 45p on 6 April 2026. Parking and tolls are still claimed on top. Keep a log of business journeys: the flat rate needs the miles recorded.
Once you use the flat rate for a vehicle, you keep it for as long as you use that vehicle in the business. You cannot use it for a vehicle you have already claimed capital allowances on, or whose cost you have already put through as an expense.
Which journeys count matters more than which method. Travel between home and a fixed place of work, such as a yard or a unit you work from every day, is not claimable. HMRC's own manual gives a jobbing builder as the example of the opposite case: a trader based at home who travels to a series of sites for a short job at each can claim the travel between home and those sites.
Working from home
Most trades do the quoting, invoicing and ordering at the kitchen table in the evening. You can claim for that in one of two ways.
The flat rate is £10 a month for 25 to 50 hours a month, £18 for 51 to 100 hours and £26 for 101 hours or more, from gov.uk's simplified expenses. You need at least 25 hours a month of business use. It does not cover the phone or internet: claim the business share of those separately.
Or you can work out a share of your actual heating, electricity, Council Tax and mortgage interest or rent, by the rooms you use and the time you use them. The flat rate is less work and is often close enough for a few evenings a week.
Tools, equipment and the cash basis
How you claim tools depends on your accounting method, and most sole traders are on the cash basis without having chosen it: it became the standard method on 6 April 2024.
Under the cash basis, tools, equipment and vans you buy for the business go through as expenses in the year you pay for them, like any other cost. Cars are the exception and go through capital allowances.
Under traditional accounting, equipment and vans go through capital allowances instead. The annual investment allowance lets you deduct the full cost in the year you buy, up to £1 million, so for most trades the result is the same.
The self-employed tax calculator works out the tax on your profit once the expenses are off.
Workwear and PPE
Protective clothing and a uniform you need for the work are claimable: safety boots, hi-vis, hard hats, gloves, eye and ear protection, overalls, and workwear with your business name on it.
Ordinary clothes are not, even if you only ever wear them on site. A plain pair of jeans or a hoodie is everyday clothing in HMRC's eyes.
Materials, CIS and subcontractors
Materials you buy and fit on customers' jobs are an expense in the year you pay for them under the cash basis, and so are skips, waste disposal and plant you hire for a job.
If you work under CIS, keep two things apart. The deduction a contractor takes from your pay is tax you have already paid, not an expense: it comes off your tax bill on the return. The materials you bought for that contractor's job are an expense, and the contractor should have left them out of the deduction. The CIS tax calculator shows the deduction on a payment, and the CIS tax rebate calculator shows what comes back at the end of the year once your expenses are in.
If you pay subcontractors yourself, you claim what you pay them, before any CIS you deduct.
If you are VAT registered on the flat rate scheme, you cannot reclaim the VAT on what you buy, so your expenses are recorded including VAT.
Training, registrations and memberships
Courses that keep skills you already use up to date are claimable: refreshers, assessments to keep a qualification current, and courses on new rules or technology in your trade. Training to start a new trade or move into an unrelated one is not.
The registrations and memberships your work needs count too. For plumbers and heating engineers that means Gas Safe registration, for electricians a competent person scheme such as NICEIC or NAPIT, for roofers a scheme such as CompetentRoofer, and for builders, carpenters, landscapers and handymen the trade body and site card fees that go with the work. Membership of a trade body related to your business is claimable; membership of a gym is not.
Insurance, accountancy, software and your website
Public liability, tools and van insurance are all allowable, as are bank and card charges and the interest on a business loan, though not the repayments.
An accountant's fees for your business accounts count. The cost of preparing and sending your Self Assessment return does not, according to gov.uk, so if your accountant does both, only the accounts part goes in.
Job management, invoicing and accounting software count, and so does your website: gov.uk lists website costs by name, so the design, hosting and domain all go in.
What you cannot claim
- Travel between home and a fixed place of work.
- Ordinary clothes, even if you wear them for work.
- Entertaining customers, suppliers or anyone else, and most gifts.
- Fines and penalty charges, including parking tickets.
- Anything for personal use, or the personal share of anything used both ways.
- Your own wages or drawings, and your own income tax and National Insurance.
- Loan repayments.
- The cost of preparing and sending your tax return.
What each expense is worth
An allowable expense saves the tax you would have paid on that slice of profit: 26% at the basic rate, so every £100 you claim saves £26 and every £1,000 saves £260, and 42% at the higher rate, £42 on every £100. Scottish bands differ; the estimator below has them. That is the reason to keep the receipt for the £20 box of fixings.
Your expenses are also what your day rate has to carry. The day rate calculator builds them into the rate you charge.
Tick the categories you spend on and put in rough yearly figures to see the total and what it saves. The button takes the total into the self-employed tax calculator's expenses box.
Receipts, records and what happens without them
You do not send receipts with your return. You keep them, with bank statements, invoices and your mileage log, for at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for that year's return, and show them if HMRC asks.
There is no allowance for expenses without records beyond the flat rates, and even those need the miles and hours written down. If a receipt goes missing, your bank or card statement and the supplier's records are the evidence. If you have to estimate a figure, keep a note of how you worked it out and say on your return that it is an estimate, as gov.uk asks.
Making Tax Digital and expenses
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax changes how you keep records, not what you can claim. Sole traders with qualifying income over £50,000 from April 2026 keep digital records and send quarterly updates, then over £30,000 from April 2027 and over £20,000 from April 2028. The expense categories in the software match the ones on this page, so a checklist kept through the year saves a scramble at each quarter.
The self-employed tax calculator shows whether your income puts you in scope, alongside the tax on your profit.
Questions people ask
Can I claim for my lunch if I am self-employed?
Not for an ordinary working day, even on a customer's site. HMRC treats food as a normal cost of living. You can claim reasonable meals when a job takes you outside your normal pattern of travel on an occasional basis, when your trade is itinerant, or when the work keeps you away overnight, with the hotel.
What expenses can I deduct from self-employed income?
Any running cost that is wholly and exclusively for the business: van and travel, tools and equipment, materials, workwear and protective clothing, staff and subcontractors, insurance and bank charges, your phone and software, your website and advertising, trade memberships and registrations, and training in skills you already use. Mixed costs, like a phone or a home office, are split and only the business share is claimed.
Can I claim 45p per mile as a sole trader?
Not for journeys from 6 April 2026. The flat rate for cars and vans rose from 45p to 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year on that date, with 25p a mile after that. 45p is the rate for journeys before it.
What is the most overlooked tax break in the UK?
There is no official list. For a tradesperson, check you have not left off the working from home flat rate for the evenings spent quoting and invoicing, the business share of your phone, your website and domain, the registrations and memberships your work needs, and costs from before you started trading.
What can I claim on tax without receipts in 2026?
Nothing extra: every expense needs a record. The flat rates for mileage and working from home replace the arithmetic, not the records, so you still need a mileage log and a note of the hours. If a receipt is lost, your bank or card statement and the supplier's records are the evidence. If you have to estimate a figure, keep a note of how you worked it out and say on your return that it is an estimate.
Do HMRC ask for proof of expenses?
Not when you file. You do not send receipts with your return, but you must keep them and show them if HMRC asks, for at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for that year's return.
Can I claim my van as an expense?
Yes. Under the cash basis, which most sole traders now use, the cost of a van goes through as an expense in the year you pay for it. Under traditional accounting it goes through capital allowances instead. If you claim the van's cost, you claim its actual running costs too. The flat rate per mile is the alternative only for a vehicle whose cost you have not claimed.
Can I claim my website as a business expense?
Yes. gov.uk lists website costs as an allowable expense, so the design, the hosting and the domain all count.
Can I claim for tools I bought before I started?
Usually. Costs you paid in the 7 years before you started trading count as spent on your first day if they would have been allowable once you were trading. Equipment bought for the business before you started is treated for capital allowances as bought on your first day. Tools you already owned for your own use can still go through capital allowances, but not the annual investment allowance.
Are CIS deductions an expense?
No. The 20% a contractor takes off your pay under CIS is tax you have already paid, so it goes against your tax bill on the return, not in your expenses. The materials you bought for a contractor's job are an expense, and they were never part of the deduction.
Written by Janusz Wozniak, Founder & Lead Developer. Guides are updated when prices or platforms change; the dates above say when.