Trades Guide · Expenses

What can a tradesperson actually claim on expenses? (Yes, we checked the brews.)

The Back Office  ·  9 min read  ·  Last updated 24 August 2026

The short answer: A self-employed tradesperson can claim any cost incurred wholly and exclusively for the business — tools, materials, the van and running it, protective gear, insurance, phone and a share of home costs. Everyday clothing, your commute, fines and your daily brew are not claimable. No receipt, no claim.

There’s a bloke in every pub who’ll tell you he writes off his telly, his dog, and a fortnight in Lanzarote because he “took a call about a job once.” He’s having you on, and one day he’ll be having a very long chat with HMRC.

The truth is less exciting and a lot more useful: you can claim plenty, it’s all above board, and most trades leave money on the table because they’re not sure what counts. So here’s the proper list — checked against GOV.UK in August 2026, not the bar — of what a self-employed tradesperson can actually claim.

One thing that changed in April, and it’s worth money: HMRC’s simplified mileage rate for the first 10,000 business miles went up from 45p to 55p from the 2026–27 tax year. If you’re still working off 45p — and most articles online still are — you’re under-claiming by £1,000 on 10,000 miles. More on that below.

The one rule that decides everything

Before the list, the rule every single expense has to pass. To be claimable, a cost has to be wholly and exclusively for the business.

That’s it. It comes from Section 34 of the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005, and HMRC applies it strictly: if there’s a non-business purpose in there, the expense fails.

But — and this is the bit that saves you money — where a definite, separable part of a cost is purely for the business, that part is allowable. Your phone is the classic. You can’t claim the whole bill, because you’d have a phone anyway. You can claim the business share. Spend £200 a year on the phone and £70 of that is work calls? You claim the £70. Simple as.

The distinction matters: a cost you can’t split at all fails completely. A cost you can split fairly, you split.

(Quick note: this is for sole traders and partnerships. Limited companies play a slightly different game. And if your self-employed income is small and you’re using the £1,000 trading allowance, you can’t also claim expenses — it’s one or the other.)

The stuff you can definitely claim

Run these against your last year and see how much you’ve been missing.

  • Tools, equipment and machinery. The drill, the saw, the van racking, the lot. Depending on how you do your books it’s either a capital allowance — the Annual Investment Allowance covers plant and machinery up to £1 million a year, so realistically all of it — or straight as an expense. Either way, it counts.
  • Materials and stock. Everything you buy to do the job or sell on. Obvious, but log it all.
  • Your van and what it costs to run. Fuel, insurance, repairs, servicing, road tax, breakdown cover, hire charges. Buy the van and it’s a capital allowance; run it and those are allowable expenses. Or use the flat mileage rate instead — see below.
  • Parking and business travel. Car parks, train, bus, tram and taxi fares for the job. Parking, yes. Parking tickets, no — fines and penalty charges are never claimable.
  • Protective gear and uniforms. Hi-vis, steel toecaps, hard hat, goggles, branded workwear. Your everyday jeans and trainers are not — even if you only wear them on site.
  • Phone and broadband. The business proportion of the bill, worked out honestly.
  • Insurance. Public liability, tools cover, van insurance — the cost of being covered to work.
  • A share of your home costs. If you do quotes and invoicing from the kitchen table, claim a slice of heating, electricity, council tax, rent or mortgage interest — worked out properly, or using HMRC’s flat rate below.
  • Advertising and marketing. Your website, van signage, leaflets, the Facebook ads.
  • Training to keep your skills current. Refresher courses and tickets that keep you doing what you already do.
  • The lad and any subbies. Wages and subcontractor costs are allowable. (Paying subbies is CIS territory — a job for another day.)
  • Accountant, bookkeeping and bank charges. Professional fees and bank charges count. So does software your business subscribes to — HMRC specifically allows regular licence payments as an expense. The thing you use to sort all this is itself claimable.

Mileage: the flat rate that saves the receipts — and just went up

Don’t fancy keeping every fuel receipt? Use HMRC’s simplified mileage rate instead and just log your business miles. From the 2026–27 tax year the rates are:

VehicleFlat rate per business mile
Cars and goods vehicles — first 10,000 miles55p  (was 45p)
Cars and goods vehicles — over 10,000 miles25p
Motorcycles24p

So 11,000 business miles in the year now works out at (10,000 × 55p) + (1,000 × 25p) = £5,750. On the old 45p rate that same year came to £4,750. That’s a thousand pounds of allowable expense that appeared in April without anyone telling you.

You can still claim parking and other fares on top. Two catches, mind. If you’ve already claimed the van as a capital allowance, or put it through as an expense, you can’t also use the mileage rate for it — pick one. And once you start using the flat rate for a vehicle, you have to keep using it for as long as that vehicle is in the business.

Working from home: the flat rate for the kitchen-table shift

If you do 25 hours or more of admin a month from home, you can skip the room-by-room maths and use HMRC’s flat rate:

Hours worked from home per monthFlat rate per month
25 to 50£10
51 to 100£18
101 and more£26

It doesn’t cover phone and broadband — HMRC is explicit about that. Claim the business share of those separately, based on actual costs.

Here’s the cheeky bit, mind: that flat rate only kicks in once you’re doing 25 hours a month of admin at home. With The Back Office running your quotes, invoices and receipts from your phone, you’d struggle to rack up 25 hours at the kitchen table doing paperwork at all. A smaller home-working claim, granted — but you’ve got your evenings back instead, which is the better trade by a mile.

The stuff that gets people caught

Here’s where the pub wisdom falls over:

  • Everyday clothing. Your jeans, your normal jumper, boots that aren’t safety boots. Not claimable, even if you only wear them for work — you’d need clothes anyway. That principle comes from a court case about a barrister’s court clothes, and it’s been settled law ever since. Protective gear and branded uniform only.
  • Your normal commute. Home to a regular workplace isn’t claimable. Travelling out to different jobs and between sites generally is — see below, because this one has more in it than people think.
  • Fines and penalties. Parking tickets, speeding fines, the lot. HMRC won’t subsidise them.
  • Anything personal. The personal-use share of any cost comes out. And money you draw for yourself isn’t an expense — that’s your wages.

The travel rule, properly

Worth a moment, because it’s the one where trades most often get it wrong in both directions.

If you work out of a fixed base — a yard, a workshop, an office — travel from home to that base is your commute and isn’t claimable. Travel from the base out to jobs is.

But if you’re genuinely itinerant, with no fixed base, going from home to a different site every day, your home can be treated as the base of operations and that travel can be allowable. That principle comes from a case about a bricklayer working sites within about 55 miles of home, and it’s exactly the position a lot of one-van trades are in.

Two warnings. Distance matters — the further your work is from home, the less this holds. And travel to a site you attend habitually and regularly can be treated as commuting even if you’re self-employed. If you’ve got one big customer you’re at most weeks, have your accountant confirm where your line sits before you claim it.

So… the brews?

You knew this was coming. Sorry: your daily site brew and your lunch are not claimable. HMRC’s own guidance says it plainly — everyone must eat in order to live, so everyday food and drink is the cost of being alive, not the cost of doing business. You’d have to eat whether you were rendering a wall or not.

The exceptions are real, though. If you’re away overnight on a job, the hotel and reasonable meals are claimable — including meals not on the same bill as the room. And where a trade is genuinely itinerant, or the journey is occasional and outside your normal pattern, reasonable food and drink while travelling can be allowed too.

So the bacon roll on a normal Tuesday is on you. The dinner when you’re stopping over in Carlisle for a three-day job is on the books. Make your peace with it.

The catch nobody mentions: no receipt, no claim

Here’s the thing that quietly costs trades the most. Every item on that list is only worth something if you can prove it. No record, no receipt, no claim — and “I definitely bought some stuff at the merchants in March” doesn’t cut it with HMRC.

And you have to keep it. A sole trader must hold their records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline for that tax year. Five years. Of paper. In a van.

Which is exactly where it falls apart, because the receipts live in the glovebox, the footwell, and that carrier bag behind the seat, slowly turning to pulp. By the time you do your books, half of them are unreadable and the other half are gone.

That’s the job The Back Office takes off you. Snap a photo of the receipt the second you’ve paid — on the WhatsApp you’ve already got open — and Jan files it and sorts it into the right category there and then. Log a fuel stop with a voice note from the forecourt. Come tax time, every claimable cost is sat there with the proof attached, instead of you squinting at a faded Screwfix receipt trying to remember what it was for.

And since Making Tax Digital for Income Tax went live in April 2026, keeping those records digitally stopped being good practice and started being the requirement — for anyone over the £50,000 qualifying income threshold.

Straight with you, because it matters: The Back Office doesn’t decide your tax or file your return — that’s still you and your accountant. What it does is make sure nothing claimable slips through the cracks, so you stop handing HMRC money you didn’t owe them. £29 a month inc. VAT, flat. Which, as we’ve established, is itself a business expense.

Tradesperson expenses: quick FAQ

What can a self-employed tradesperson claim on expenses?

Tools and equipment, materials, the van and its running costs, business travel and parking, protective clothing and uniform, the business share of phone and broadband, insurance, a share of home costs, advertising, training that maintains your existing skills, wages and subcontractor costs, and professional fees including bookkeeping software.

What is the mileage rate for 2026/27?

55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in cars and goods vehicles, 25p thereafter, and 24p for motorcycles. The 55p rate replaced the long-standing 45p rate from the 2026–27 tax year.

Can I claim my van?

Yes. Buy it and it’s a capital allowance; running it — fuel, insurance, repairs, tax — is an allowable expense. Or use the flat mileage rate instead. You can’t do both for the same van, and once you pick the flat rate you have to stick with it for that vehicle.

Can I claim my work boots and clothes?

Protective clothing and branded uniform, yes. Everyday clothing, no — even if you only wear it for work.

Can I claim my mobile phone?

The business proportion of the bill, yes. Not the personal half. The flat rate for working from home specifically doesn’t cover phone or broadband, so work those out on actual cost.

Can I claim my lunch?

Not your everyday brew and bait — HMRC treats that as the cost of being alive. Meals and accommodation when you’re away overnight on a job are claimable, and so is reasonable food and drink while travelling if your trade is genuinely itinerant or the trip is outside your normal pattern.

Can I claim travel from home to a job?

If you have a fixed base, home to that base is a commute and isn’t claimable. If you’re genuinely itinerant with no fixed base, home-to-site travel can be allowable — but distance matters, and a site you attend habitually can still count as commuting. Worth confirming with your accountant.

How much can I claim for working from home?

£10 a month for 25 to 50 hours, £18 for 51 to 100 hours, and £26 for 101 hours or more, using HMRC’s flat rate. Below 25 hours a month you can’t use the flat rate at all — you’d have to work out actual costs instead.

Do I really need to keep the receipts?

Yes. No record, no claim — and you have to keep them for at least five years after the 31 January deadline for that tax year. Keeping them digitally as you go is the easiest way not to lose them, and it’s what Making Tax Digital requires anyway.

Is accounting software a claimable expense?

Yes. HMRC allows regular subscription payments for software your business uses as an allowable expense.

You earn this money the hard way. Claiming what you’re owed isn’t a fiddle — it’s just not overpaying. Keep the proof tidy as you go and you’ll keep more of it.

Where these figures come from

Every number in this guide is linked to its source below, with the date we checked it. Rules and prices change — if you are reading this a long way from the date at the top, check the originals.

All GOV.UK pages checked 14 August 2026.

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