Self-Employed Expenses UK Tradespeople Can Claim (2026 Guide)

If you’re self-employed in the trades — whether you’re a plumber, electrician, builder, decorator, or any other skilled tradesperson — claiming every legitimate expense is one of the simplest ways to reduce your tax bill. Yet many tradespeople either over-claim (and risk an HMRC enquiry) or under-claim (and pay more tax than they need to). This guide covers everything you’re entitled to deduct for the 2025–26 tax year.

How tax-deductible expenses work

A tax-deductible expense reduces your taxable profit, not your tax bill directly. If you earn £60,000 and claim £15,000 of allowable expenses, you’re taxed on £45,000 instead of the full amount. At the basic rate that saves you £3,000; at the higher rate it saves £6,000. The difference matters — an expense claim is worth whatever your marginal tax rate is, not the full amount of the expense.

HMRC’s golden rule is that the expense must be incurred “wholly and exclusively” for the purpose of your trade. That phrase is worth memorising. If a cost has a dual purpose — partly business, partly personal — you can usually claim only the business proportion. If a cost has no genuine business purpose at all, it isn’t allowable regardless of whether you paid for it through your business account. Keep receipts and invoices for everything; HMRC can investigate returns up to four years back (and longer if they suspect fraud).

Tools and equipment

Hand tools, power tools, and other small items of equipment used wholly for your trade can be deducted in full in the year you buy them. There’s no minimum spend threshold for this — a £25 set of drill bits is just as allowable as a £250 circular saw.

For larger capital items — a van-mounted compressor, a generator, scaffolding, specialist machinery — the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) lets you deduct 100% of the cost in the year of purchase, up to a limit of £1 million per year. That limit is more than enough for the vast majority of sole traders. If you spend more than the AIA limit (unlikely unless you’re running a large operation), the excess goes into the main capital allowances pool and is written down at 18% per year.

One distinction worth understanding: repairs to existing tools are an allowable revenue expense; replacing a tool outright is a capital purchase (claimed via AIA). In practice, because AIA gives 100% relief in year one, the end result is the same — but the accounting treatment differs if you ever need to show your figures to a lender or HMRC.

Van and vehicle costs

Your van is almost certainly your biggest work-related cost outside of labour and materials. HMRC gives you two ways to claim it.

Simplified flat rate (mileage method)

You claim 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year, then 25p per mile after that. This rate is meant to cover fuel, wear and tear, insurance, and all other running costs. The mileage method is simple: keep a log of every business journey (date, start and end point, purpose, miles), multiply by the rate, and you’re done. You can’t also claim fuel or insurance separately if you use this method.

Actual cost method

Alternatively, you claim the real costs: van purchase (via AIA or capital allowances), fuel, insurance, road tax, MOT, servicing, and repairs. If the van is used exclusively for business, you claim 100% of these costs. If you occasionally use it privately, you’ll need to apportion — though for most tradespeople with a works van, HMRC generally accepts 100% business use if you have a separate personal vehicle.

Which method is better? For high-mileage tradespeople with an older or cheaper van, the flat rate often wins. For those with expensive vans or lower mileage, actual costs are usually higher. You must stick with one method for the life of the vehicle — you can’t switch mid-year — so it’s worth doing the maths before you choose.

Fuel and travel

If you’re on the actual cost method, claim every litre of fuel used on business journeys. Keep your fuel receipts and cross-reference them with your mileage log if HMRC ever asks. Journeys from your home to a temporary workplace — a site where you’re working for less than 24 months — are allowable. Journeys to a permanent workplace count as commuting and are not allowable, though for most self-employed tradespeople there is no fixed permanent workplace, so this rarely applies.

Other travel costs — parking (see what’s not claimable below), tolls, congestion charges, and public transport for business trips — are also allowable expenses. If you travel by train to price a job or collect a specialist part, keep the ticket as a receipt.

Materials and subcontractors

Materials you buy and use on a job — pipe, cable, plasterboard, paint, fixings — are 100% deductible. The same goes for anything you buy and charge on to customers. Keep every supplier invoice; merchant account statements alone aren’t always sufficient if HMRC wants to see itemised proof of what was purchased.

Payments to subcontractors are also fully deductible. If you operate within the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS), remember that the gross amount you pay to a subie is the deductible figure — not the net after CIS deductions. Your subie handles their own tax; you just need to keep the payment records and submit your monthly CIS returns to HMRC.

Insurance

Every insurance policy that covers your trade is a fully allowable expense:

• Public liability insurance — essential for most trades, fully deductible.
• Tools insurance — covers theft or damage to your tools; fully deductible.
• Van insurance — if you’re on the actual cost method; fully deductible (apportion if private use).
• Employer’s liability insurance — legally required once you take on employees; fully deductible.
• Professional indemnity insurance — relevant for design-and-build or consulting work; fully deductible.

Life insurance and income protection policies are generally not deductible as a business expense (they’re personal), unless the policy is a very specific “relevant life policy” set up through a limited company — which doesn’t apply to sole traders.

Training and qualifications

The rule here is that training must be to update or improve existing skills, not to acquire a fundamentally new skill or enter a different trade. In practice, this covers a wide range:

• CPD courses and refresher training directly related to your trade.
• Gas Safe registration renewals and associated training.
• CSCS card renewals and first aid renewals.
• NVQ courses extending skills within your existing trade area.
• Health and safety training (asbestos awareness, working at height, etc.).

Where it gets complicated: HMRC has been known to disallow training that effectively qualifies someone to do a new type of work. A gas engineer paying for a plumbing NVQ to branch out into general plumbing is in a grey area. A gas engineer paying for an LPG conversion course to widen their existing gas work is generally fine. When in doubt, ask your accountant before assuming it’s claimable.

Marketing and directories

Every pound you spend getting your name in front of potential customers is deductible:

• Checkatrade, Rated People, MyBuilder, and similar directory fees.
• Website design, hosting, and domain costs.
• Google Ads and social media advertising spend.
• Printed leaflets, business cards, and signage (including van livery).
• Photographers hired to document your work for your portfolio or website.

Van livery in particular is worth highlighting — it’s a marketing cost, not a vehicle cost, and it can be substantial. Keep the invoice from the sign writer.

Home office

If you do admin from home — quoting, invoicing, replying to enquiries — you can claim a proportion of your household bills. HMRC offers a simple flat rate of £6 per week for occasional home use, which you can claim without calculating anything. That’s £312 per year for effectively no paperwork.

If you have a dedicated workspace — a room used exclusively and regularly as an office — you can instead claim a proportion of your actual bills (mortgage interest or rent, broadband, council tax, heating, electricity). The proportion is calculated by the number of rooms used for business divided by the total rooms in the property, or by floor area. Be aware: if you claim a room as exclusive business use, it could affect your principal private residence relief on capital gains when you sell your home. For most tradespeople, the £6 flat rate is safer and simpler.

Clothing and PPE

This is an area where HMRC draws a firm line. You can claim for clothing that is protective or a recognisable uniform — and nothing else:

• Hi-visibility vests and jackets.
• Rigger boots and steel-toecap boots.
• Overalls, boiler suits, and work trousers with reinforced knees.
• Hard hats, safety glasses, and gloves.
• Branded workwear bearing your company name or logo.

Ordinary clothes — even if you only ever wear them for work — are not allowable. HMRC’s position is that jeans, sweatshirts, and trainers can theoretically be worn outside work, so they fail the “wholly and exclusively” test. Don’t try to claim them.

Phone and internet

If you have a separate business phone used only for work, the full cost — handset (via AIA) and monthly contract — is deductible. If you use your personal phone for both business and personal calls, claim a reasonable business proportion. Many tradespeople use their phone heavily for work — taking enquiry calls, messaging customers, navigating to sites, using trade apps — so a 70–80% business split is often justifiable, provided you can support it if asked.

Home broadband used partly for business can be similarly apportioned. If you have a dedicated business broadband line, that’s 100% deductible.

Professional fees and subscriptions

The costs of running your business professionally are fully deductible:

• Accountant fees — for tax returns, bookkeeping, or advice; fully deductible.
• Trade body memberships — membership of HMRC-approved professional bodies (NICEIC, NAPIT, Gas Safe, FMB, etc.); fully deductible.
• Software subscriptions — job management software, invoicing tools, accounting packages, and apps like Trade2Base; fully deductible as a business running cost.
• Bank charges — business bank account fees and transaction charges; fully deductible.
• Legal fees — for contracts, debt recovery, or business disputes; fully deductible (personal legal matters are not).

What you cannot claim

Knowing what’s not allowable is just as important:

• Food and drink — your everyday lunch is not deductible, even if you eat it on site. The exception is food on overnight business trips away from your normal area of work.
• Fines and penalties — parking fines, speeding fines, HMRC late filing penalties — none of these are allowable, full stop.
• Client entertainment — taking a client out for a meal or drinks is not deductible. HMRC disallows “business entertaining” in almost all circumstances.
• Personal purchases — anything bought for personal use, even if you put it on your business card, is not claimable.
• Your own wages — as a sole trader, you don’t pay yourself a salary. Drawings from your business are not an expense.
• Capital repayments on loans — the interest on a business loan is deductible, but the capital repayment is not (the asset itself will be claimed via capital allowances).

Quick reference: common tradesperson expenses

One final point: the list above is comprehensive, but it isn’t exhaustive. Every trade is different, and your individual circumstances matter. If you’re unsure whether a particular cost is allowable, speak to an accountant who works with tradespeople — their fee is, of course, fully deductible.