What expenses can I claim as self-employed in the UK?

Every pound you can claim as a business expense lowers the profit you pay tax on. So the question "what expenses can I claim as self-employed in the UK?" is really a question about how much tax you hand over.

This is the plain version. I read GOV.UK's pages on expenses and on simplified expenses this morning, and everything below comes from them.

What counts as an allowable expense?

GOV.UK says you can deduct costs that are for your business only. It lists these categories:

• Office costs, such as stationery and phone bills.
• Travel costs, such as fuel, parking, and train or bus fares.
• Clothing, such as uniforms.
• Staff costs, such as salaries or subcontractor costs.
• Goods you buy to resell, such as stock and raw materials.
• Financial costs, such as insurance and bank charges.
• Premises costs, such as heating, lighting and business rates.
• Advertising or marketing, such as website costs.
• Subscriptions, such as trade or professional journals.
• Training courses related to your business.

Say you're a cleaner. Your supplies, your insurance and the fuel for driving between jobs all fit. A new coat for the school run doesn't.

What can't you claim?

GOV.UK is clear on four things.

1. Money you take out of the business for personal use isn't an expense.
2. Personal costs aren't allowed. If something is used for both business and personal reasons, you can only claim the business part.
3. If you use the £1,000 trading allowance, you can't claim expenses on that income. I wrote about that choice in the trading allowance explained.
4. If you run a limited company, you're not self-employed in this sense. The company deducts costs under Corporation Tax instead.

How does the mixed-use rule work?

This is where most people get stuck. GOV.UK gives an example with a phone bill. Say the bill is £200, and £130 of it is personal calls and £70 is business calls. You can claim £70.

Use any fair method, and be ready to explain it. Counting calls, hours or rooms all works. Guessing a round number doesn't.

Can you claim for working from home?

Yes. GOV.UK says you can claim a share of heating, electricity, Council Tax, mortgage interest or rent, and internet and phone use. You work the share out by a reasonable method, such as rooms or time.

Its own example: a home with 4 rooms and a £1,120 electricity bill. One room's share is £280 (£1,120 divided by 4). If you work from that room one day a week, you can claim £40 (£280 divided by 7).

What are simplified expenses?

Simplified expenses are flat rates. You use them instead of adding up real costs. GOV.UK offers them for vehicles, working from home, and living on your business premises.

Mileage flat rates

For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, GOV.UK's vehicle page gives these rates per mile:

• Cars and goods vehicles, first 10,000 miles: 55p (it was 45p before 6 April 2026).
• Cars and goods vehicles, after 10,000 miles: 25p.
• Motorcycles: 24p.

Say you're a mobile hairdresser and you drive 6,000 business miles in a year. At 55p, that's £3,300. GOV.UK says you can still claim parking and train fares on top. But you can't use the flat rate for a vehicle you've already claimed capital allowances on. And once you use the flat rate for a vehicle, you must keep using it for that vehicle.

Working from home flat rates

GOV.UK's page gives a monthly amount based on the hours you work from home:

• 25 to 50 hours: £10 a month.
• 51 to 100 hours: £18 a month.
• 101 hours or more: £26 a month.

You need at least 25 hours a month at home to use it. The flat rate doesn't cover phone or internet, so you can claim the business share of those separately.

Say you work about 60 hours a month at the kitchen table. That's £18 a month, or £216 over 12 months. Real costs might come out higher or lower. GOV.UK has a simplified expenses checker that compares the two.

What about equipment and vans?

GOV.UK says that if you use traditional accounting, you claim capital allowances on equipment, machinery and business vehicles such as cars, vans, lorries and bicycles. On cash basis accounting, you can claim capital allowances on a business car. Other items you keep for the business are claimed as normal expenses.

I won't go deeper here, because the right route depends on which accounting method you use. Check it before you buy something big.

Keep the proof

A claim you can't back up is a claim you might lose. Keep receipts, invoices and bank statements for each cost. How to keep records as a self-employed person covers a simple way to do it.

My take

Most people under-claim because they're unsure, not because they're being careful. The rule is simple. If it's for the business, claim it. If it's half for the business, claim the half.

At Vcents we keep your payments in one WhatsApp chat, so there's a clean trail of what came in. It won't do your expenses for you. But it makes the income side of your records easy.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Expenses if you're self-employed, read 27 October 2026.
• GOV.UK: Simplified expenses, vehicles, read 27 October 2026.
• GOV.UK: Simplified expenses, working from home, read 27 October 2026.