What Expenses Can You Claim When Self-Employed?

When you are self-employed, you only pay tax on your profit, not on everything you earn. Profit is what is left after you take off your business costs. So the expenses you claim directly lower your tax bill, which makes knowing what you can claim genuinely worth your time.

This guide explains what counts as an allowable expense, the simple ways to claim the trickier ones like home working and mileage, and the costs you cannot claim.

The basic rule: wholly and exclusively

HMRC's test for an allowable expense is that it must be wholly and exclusively for your business. If you bought it to run your business, you can usually claim it. If it is a personal cost, you cannot.

Some costs are a mix of both, like a phone you use for work and personal calls. In those cases, you claim only the business share. The rest is personal and stays out of your accounts.

Common expenses you can claim

Most self-employed people can claim costs like these:

• Office costs: stationery, printing, postage, software subscriptions, and phone or internet use for business
• Stock and materials: the goods you buy to sell, or the raw materials you use to make them
• Business travel: train fares, fuel or mileage for business journeys, parking, and accommodation when you stay away for work
• Professional fees: accountancy, legal costs, and professional memberships relevant to your work
• Equipment and tools: the kit you need to do the job, from a tradesperson's tools to a photographer's camera
• Marketing: website costs, advertising, and business cards
• Insurance: business insurance policies, such as public liability cover

This is not the full list, but it covers the costs most people have.

Working from home

If you work from home, you can claim a share of your household running costs. There are two ways to do it.

The simple way is HMRC's flat rate, based on how many hours you work from home each month. It is £10 per month if you work 25 to 50 hours, £18 per month for 51 to 100 hours, and £26 per month for 101 hours or more. You do not need to keep utility bills or do any sums beyond counting your hours.

The other way is to work out the actual business proportion of your home costs, such as heating, electricity, and broadband, usually based on how many rooms you use and for how long. This takes more record-keeping but can be worth more if your bills are high.

Mileage and vehicle costs

If you drive for business, you have two options here too.

The simplest is HMRC's flat mileage rate. For the 2025/26 tax year, that is 45p per mile for your first 10,000 business miles, then 25p per mile after that. Motorcycles are 24p and bicycles 20p. You keep a log of your business miles and multiply by the rate. This single figure covers fuel, insurance, servicing, and wear and tear, so you do not track those separately.

The alternative is to claim the actual running costs of your vehicle and work out the business proportion. Once you pick a method for a particular vehicle, you need to stick with it for as long as you own it.

One thing to note: the flat mileage rate rises to 55p per mile from the 2026/27 tax year, so if you are claiming for journeys made from 6 April 2026 onwards, you will use the higher rate.

A quick example

Nia is a self-employed graphic designer working from her spare room. Over the year she spent 600 pounds on design software, 200 pounds on a new monitor, and drove 1,200 business miles visiting clients. She works from home around 90 hours a month.

Nia can claim the £600  software and £200  monitor as business costs. For her car, 1,200 miles at 45p comes to £540 . For working from home at 90 hours a month, she uses the 18 pound flat rate, giving £216  for the year. Added together, that is over £1,500 pounds of expenses, which comes straight off her taxable profit and lowers the tax she pays.

What you cannot claim

Some costs feel like they should count but do not:

• Personal costs, or the personal share of a mixed cost
• Client entertaining, such as taking a client for lunch or to an event
• Everyday clothing, even if you bought it specially for work. Genuine protective gear or a branded uniform is different.
• Fines, such as parking or speeding tickets
• The cost of getting to a regular workplace, which counts as commuting rather than business travel

When a cost is part business and part personal, you can usually only claim the business portion, never the whole thing.

Keep records as you go

Whatever you claim, keep the evidence. Receipts, invoices, and a simple mileage log are all HMRC expects, and they make your return far easier to complete. Keeping them as you go is much less painful than digging them out in January.

Want to make sure you claim everything?

Missed expenses mean paying more tax than you need to. A chartered accountant knows exactly what you can claim for your line of work and makes sure nothing is left on the table. You fill out one form, and we take it from there.