Can I claim for that?
It’s a question we get asked every day. Your bookkeeper can help you work out which costs may qualify as business expenses and may even spot some you’ve overlooked. But it’s worth checking: are you sure every expense you’re putting through is allowable?
Missed expenses aren’t always big purchases. They can be small, one-off costs or regular payments that slip under the radar. I sometimes forget to include my work mobile phone bill. It’s a small recurring amount, so it’s easy to overlook. We become used to small amounts so we either forget or pass them aside because “it’s only a couple of quid”, but don’t forget ‘only a couple of quid’ once a week comes up to £104 per year.
Then there are the expenses we do claim. Are you sure they’re allowable? A cost that has both business and personal use may need to be split. For example, if you’re a sole trader or in a partnership and use your home internet for both work and personal browsing, you can generally claim only the business portion.
The broad rule is that an expense must be incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. Limited companies have their own rules, including possible tax implications when company expenses are used personally, so it’s sensible to check with a bookkeeper or accountant.
Let’s look at common business expenses—and some that are easy to overlook. Starting with allowable expenses, I’ve put together a short list of items where the answer to the question is ‘YES, you can claim this’.
Category | Can I claim this? |
Office and admin | Stationery, business phone, business use of internet, postage, business software subscriptions/one off purchases. |
Travel | Business mileage or travel, parking, overnight costs to a place that is not your normal place of work. Ordinary commuting to work is not allowable, so check the rules for your situation. |
Home working and premises | Sole traders and qualifying partnerships can use HMRC’s monthly flat rate if they work from home at least 25 hours a month: £10 for 25–50 hours, £18 for 51–100 hours, or £26 for 101 hours or more. Limited companies may be able to reimburse employees or directors for reasonable additional household costs often £6 a week, or £26 a month when the home-working conditions are met. The rules differ, so check which applies to you. |
Marketing | Website hosting, advertising, design, photography, printed materials (flyers, business cards, etc), social-media tools. |
Professional services | Bookkeeping and accountancy fees, business insurance, bank fees, card charges, relevant memberships to professional organisations. |
Training | Training that will maintain or update skills for individuals working for the existing business. Training for a new business is not treated in the same way. |
Equipment | Laptops, tools (whichever tools you use to run your business), maintenance of machinery and vehicles. |
New equipment | New vehicles or equipment is treated differently, for capital allowances it’s advisable to speak to your bookkeeper or accountant. |
I’ll share a links to HMRC guidance for allowable expenses at the end, but this should give you a general idea, just think “is this expense directly for the day to day running of my current business?” “ Would you be comfortable explaining to your bookkeeper or HMRC the business reason for the expense?
Now, what about overlooked expenses? We spoke about the small costs that seem to go undiscovered, so where should we be looking?
I can share the usual suspects for you –
Recurring software and app subscriptions, this gets me every time.
Bank/payment card processing charges.
Small consumables, the “it’s only a couple of quid” items.
Business mileage when we forget to record the journey.
Professional memberships.
The use of your home as an office allowance, I see this a lot.
Receipts for business expenses paid for from your personal bank account.
If we have these in the back of our minds, we become more aware of recording allowable business expenses in the correct manner, and we won’t be missing out on anything.
Below are links to HMRC guidance for allowable expenses if you’d like to dive in a bit deeper -
Expenses for self-employed people -
Expenses for limited companies -
Working from home benefits -
As always, if you’d like to talk more about business expenses just get in touch.
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