Self-employed expenses – what expenses are tax deductible?

Allowable expenses for the self-employed – what do you need to know?

When filing your tax return, you can’t subtract all of your self-employed expenses. HMRC has clear rules on what you can and can’t include, which is why the costs that you can include in your calculation are called ‘allowable expenses’.

By defining allowable expenses, HMRC is trying to make sure that you only deduct expenses that are strictly related to your business.

Understanding which of your self-employed expenses are allowable (and calculating your profit accurately) helps make sure you pay the right amount of tax.

How early can you do your Self Assessment expenses?

The Self Assessment tax deadline for the 2023-24 tax year is 31 January 2025.

Even though the deadline is in January, you can complete your tax return any time after the start of the new tax year on 6 April. Completing an early tax return can help you minimise the risk of mistakes and make sure that you’re claiming all the allowable expenses possible.

What expenses can I claim as self-employed?

Office expenses, travel, marketing costs, and even business insurance all count as business expenses. Keep reading to understand how you start claiming your expenses on your tax return.

And watch the video below for some quick tips on the self-employed expenses process.

What expenses are tax deductible?

When you’re completing your tax return, there are certain costs that usually count as allowable business expenses.

Office expenses

You can claim business expenses for items that you’d usually use for less than two years. This includes business stationery like:

• phone, mobile, fax, and internet bills
• postage
• stationery
• printing
• printer ink and cartridges
• computer software your business uses for less than two years
• computer software if your business makes regular payments to renew the licence (even if you use it for more than two years)

You can also include business equipment that you’ll keep for a longer time, like computers, printers, and other computer software – but you may have to claim these as capital allowances if you don’t use cash basis accounting.

Business premises

You can claim expenses for:

• rent
• maintenance and repair
• utility bills
• property insurance
• security

You can’t claim expenses for buying or building your business premises.

Working from home allowance

It’s also possible to claim some working from home expenses on your tax return. For example, if you’ve started a home business, you can include part of your home utility bills, but you need to work out the proportion of your home that’s used for business, and what proportion of the month it’s being used for business purposes.

The government website gives an example method of dividing the costs by the number of rooms:

• you have four rooms in the house and you use one as an office
• your electricity bill for the year is £800, and each room uses an equal amount of electricity
• you can divide the bill by four to claim £200 allowable business expenses

If you work from home at least 25 hours a month, you can use ‘simplified expenses’, which is a flat monthly rate calculated by the government.

Travel

You can claim business-related car or van costs on your tax return, including:

• vehicle insurance
• fuel
• hire charges
• daily ULEZ charges if you drive in London and other clean air zone charges in UK cities
• repairs
• servicing
• breakdown cover

Self-employed car expenses can be difficult to calculate, so you can use ‘simplified vehicle expenses’, which is a flat rate provided by the government:

Vehicle	Flat rate for each mile
Cars and goods vehicles up to 10,000 miles	45p
Cars and goods vehicles over 10,000 miles	25p
Motorcycles	24p

You can also include business travel by train, bus, plane, or taxi, and hotel rooms and meals during overnight business trips.

Bear in mind that travel for things like meetings and site visits is included, but you can’t claim for the cost of travelling between home and work – so commuting or travelling to your business premises doesn’t count.

Also note that if you take a journey for both personal and business reasons, you must be able to separate out the business cost in order to include it.

You can’t claim for entertaining clients, suppliers and customers, or event hospitality.

Finally, if you buy a vehicle for your business and use traditional accounting, you can claim it as a capital allowance.

If you use cash basis accounting and buy a car for your business, you can claim it as a capital allowance (if you’re not using simplified expenses). You claim other types of vehicle, like vans, as allowable expenses.

Stock and materials

You can include the cost of your stock, your raw materials, and the direct costs that arise from producing your goods.

You can’t claim for goods or materials bought for private use, or depreciation of equipment.

Legal and financial costs

If you need to hire a professional like an accountant, a solicitor, a surveyor, or an architect for business reasons, you can include the cost in your calculation.

You can also include bank, overdraft and credit card charges, interest on bank and business loans, hire purchase interest, and leasing payments. Note that if you’re using cash basis accounting, you can only claim up to £500 in interest and bank charges.

If you use traditional accounting, you can claim money that you won’t receive and don’t think you’ll ever receive (bad debt). That’s because with traditional accounting, you include this debt in your turnover. But you can’t claim for:

• debts not included in turnover
• debts related to the disposal of fixed assets, for example land, buildings, or machinery
• bad debts that aren’t properly calculated – you can’t just estimate that your debts are equal to five per cent of your turnover

You can’t claim for debt in this way when using cash basis accounting, because you only record income you’ve actually received on your tax return.

Finally, you can’t claim fines for breaking the law as business expenses, or for repayments of loans, overdrafts, and finance arrangements.

Marketing

You can claim for the cost of marketing your business, including: 

• website costs
• newspaper advertising
• directory listings
• mailshots
• free samples

Clothing

You can include the cost of uniform, necessary protective clothing, or costumes for actors or entertainers, but you can’t include the cost of everyday clothing that you wear to work.

Staff costs

Employee and staff salaries count as allowable expenses, as do:

• bonuses
• pension contributions
• benefits
• agency fees
• employer National Insurance contributions
• training courses related to your business

Subscriptions

You can include the cost of membership to trade bodies or professional membership organisations if they’re relevant to your business, and the cost of subscriptions to trade or professional journals.

Self-employed expenses calculator

You need to rely on your tax records when calculating your allowable expenses – the figures will be unique to your business.

It’s a case of adding up your expenses from your bills and receipts, so it’s important that you keep them all, otherwise you might miss out on a claim.

Calculating expenses will also depend on whether you’re using cash basis or traditional accounting. Using cash basis accounting, you record expenses when you pay them. But with traditional accounting, you record expenses when you receive the bill or receipt.

When you complete your tax return, you may get the option to give a single figure for your allowable expenses or to give a detailed breakdown. If you choose to enter a single figure, you still need to work out all your expenses accurately, and keep a record of your workings in case HMRC queries your figures.

You should also keep receipts or other proofs of purchase. You don’t need to include these with your tax return, but you may need to present them if you’re subject to a tax investigation. HMRC says that you need to keep tax records for at least five years after the 31 January deadline of the relevant tax year.

Read more about how to fill in your tax return.

HMRC allowable expenses explainer sessions

HMRC hosts free, regular ‘talking points’ meetings and webinars, designed to help tax agents get to grips with completing returns on behalf of their clients, as well as other issues. Have a look to see the range of sessions available.

Tax can be complicated, and you can face fines if you make a mistake on your tax return, so look at the guidelines on the government’s website and seek professional advice if you need it.

More guides to help you with your taxes

• How to amend a Self Assessment tax return
• How to register as self-employed with HMRC
• HMRC Time to Pay – how to set up an HMRC payment plan
• Is public liability insurance tax deductible?