Expenses if you're self-employed

If you're self-employed, your business will have various running costs. You can deduct some of these costs to work out your taxable profit as long as they're allowable expenses.

For example, if your turnover is £40,000, and you claim £10,000 in allowable expenses. You only pay tax on the remaining £30,000 - known as your taxable profit.

Allowable expenses don't include money taken from your business to pay for private purchases.

This guide gives advice on how to claim business expenses and what kind of costs can be deducted such as office, property and equipment expenses, clothing expenses and legal and financial costs expenses.

If you run your own limited company, you need to follow different rules. You can deduct any business costs from your profits before tax. You must report any item you make personal use of as a company benefit.