What expenses can you claim in your self-assessment?
3 mins
Our experts at DSR Tax Refunds know how complicated it can get when you are trying to work out your self-assessment tax return. It can be hard to know what expenses you can claim for and which you can’t and nobody wants to find themselves on the wrong side of HMRC for claiming for something they aren’t entitled to. Fear no more, our specialist team have put together this helpful guide to let you know what you can claim for in your expenses. You can also check out our handy online calculator to see if you have missed out on tax relief in the past and are now eligible for a tax rebate. You can also call our friendly team on 0330 122 9972.
What expenses can you claim?
The general rule of thumb is that if the expense was necessary to keep your business running then HMRC will likely view it as an “allowable expense”. Of course, that is very much open to interpretation and as a result, many people either pay far more tax than they need to – or, they end up in deep trouble with HMRC for not paying enough tax. If you are really not sure whether it is allowable or not, our team of tax experts can help you out, so give us a call on 0330 122 9972.
Some of the expenses you can claim for include:
- Food and accommodation: if you are required to travel for your job and have to stay overnight, then you should be able to claim your accommodation and subsistence costs, although you will need to make sure you have the receipts to back it up and you also need to make sure that your expense claim is fair. A night at the Dorchester and an evening meal of oysters and truffles might not go down well with HMRC.
- Use of your own vehicle: depending on the nature of your business travel, you may be able to claim for some of your car use – but expert advice is often required to make sure that you are only claiming what you are entitled to.
- Phone and internet charges: if you need to use your phone and broadband because you work from home, you might be able to claim some of these expenses as tax relief. How much will depend on the business that you run and the other ways that these services get used in your home. Again, expert advice is strongly recommended.
- Charitable donations: if your business donates to charity, you can claim tax relief on those donations so doing good feels doubly good.
- Computers, software or other equipment: these might be classed as capital assets or expenditure rather than a simple business expense and as a result, would be treated differently on your self-assessment tax return. Our experts at DSR Tax Refunds would recommend that you get professional advice from our experts about claiming for one-off items that could be classed as assets.
How can DSR Tax Refunds help?
As you can see, it isn’t always black and white when it comes to allowable expenses, but if you are a client of DSR Tax Refunds, then you will be able to rest easy, safe in the knowledge that our experts are hard at work making sure that you claim the full amount of tax relief you are entitled to, but not a penny more so you will always stay the right side of HMRC. Call our friendly team on 0330 122 9972 – we’re the tax experts you can trust.