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What can I claim?
Find your trade and see the costs HMRC actually accepts for it.
The most expensive thing a self-employed person does is not fraud, and it is not filing late. It is failing to claim what they were entitled to — quietly paying tax on money they had already spent running the business, because nobody ever told them it counted.
So here is the reference we work from in the office. Find your trade and it will show you the specific costs that apply to it, with the HMRC rule for each one.
It covers a great many trades in detail. If yours is not one of them, that is not a dead end — the first two entries are the rules that apply to every business, and the extra ones that come with running a limited company. The costs themselves apply whether you are a sole trader or a company; what changes is how they are claimed.
Find your trade
The same reference we work from in the office — the specific costs HMRC accepts for each trade, not a generic list of “allowable expenses”. Start with the two amber entries if your trade is not listed.
Your own National Insurance. Class 2 and Class 4 are a tax on the profit rather than a cost of earning it, so neither can be deducted from it. Employer’s National Insurance on staff wages is a different thing and is allowable. Class 4 runs at 6% between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above that; Class 2 has been voluntary since April 2024 at £3.50 a week, and is usually worth paying to protect a state pension year.
The £1,000 trading allowance. It is an alternative to claiming expenses, not one of them. Take the allowance and you claim nothing else — so it only helps if your real costs come to less than £1,000.
About this tool
Fair questions
Does this work for limited companies too?
Yes. The costs are the same - a van is a van whether the work is done by a sole trader or through a company. What changes is the mechanism: a company claims through the company, and brings its own rules on directors loans, dividends and Corporation Tax. There is an entry at the top of the list for exactly those.
Where does this list come from?
It is the reference we use in the office - the specific costs HMRC accepts for each trade, built up from doing the actual returns. It is not a generic allowable-expenses article rewritten from HMRC's website.
If it is on the list, can I definitely claim it?
Almost. Two rules sit underneath everything: a cost has to be wholly and exclusively for the business, and anything with private use gets apportioned. A phone used for both is claimed at the business percentage, not in full.
What if my trade is not listed?
Start with the two entries at the top of the list - the rules that apply to every business, and the ones that come with a limited company. Between them they cover most of what matters. Then ring us and describe what you do: this is a reference, not a list of who we will act for.
Do I need receipts for all of this?
You need to be able to show what a cost was for. A bank line reading Amazon and an amount is not evidence on its own. Photograph receipts as you go - it takes seconds, and it is the difference between a claim that stands up and one that does not.