The UK sole trader expense checklist HMRC actually accepts

Most sole traders underclaim, not because they’re being cautious, but because nobody hands you a clear list when you start out. HMRC’s own guidance is accurate but scattered across several pages, and most summaries online either oversimplify it into “keep your receipts” or bury the useful detail under general accounting advice that doesn’t apply to a one-person business.

Here’s a working list of what’s actually claimable, organised around the categories people miss most often.

Home-related costs, if you work from home

If you do any work from home, you can claim a proportion of household costs like heating, electricity, and internet, based on either simplified flat rates for hours worked from home each month, or a proportion of actual costs if that works out higher. Most people default to the flat rate because it’s simpler, but if you work from home most of the week, calculating actual costs is often worth the extra ten minutes.

Travel that isn’t your regular commute

Travel to a client site, a one-off meeting, or a course related to your work is generally claimable, including mileage at HMRC’s set rates if you’re using your own vehicle. The distinction that trips people up: your regular commute to a single fixed place of work isn’t claimable, but travel that varies because of the nature of your work usually is.

Subscriptions and software

Software subscriptions used for the business, accounting tools, design software, project management apps, are claimable in full if used solely for business, or proportionally if there’s mixed personal use. This category gets missed constantly because subscriptions renew quietly in the background and rarely feel like a deliberate business expense the way a big purchase does.

Training directly related to your current work

Courses, certifications, and professional development that maintain or improve skills you already use in your business are claimable. Training for a completely new skill or a different line of work generally isn’t, which is the distinction HMRC actually draws, not whether the course was expensive or not.

A portion of your phone bill

If you use your personal phone for business calls or work-related messaging, a reasonable proportion of the bill is claimable. Most people don’t bother because working out the split feels fiddly, but even a conservative estimate is better than claiming nothing.

Bank charges and finance costs

Fees for a business bank account, interest on a business loan, and card payment processing fees are all claimable. These tend to get missed because they’re deducted automatically and never show up as a deliberate expense you had to think about.

What your records actually need to hold up

You don’t need a formal invoice for every single expense. What you need is enough detail to reconstruct what something was for if asked: the date, the amount, what it was, and ideally a receipt or bank statement line as evidence. A blurry photo with no context is only useful if you can still remember, months later, what it was for. The habit that actually helps is adding one line of context the same day you take the photo, while you still remember, rather than trying to reconstruct it in January.

This is the exact problem Windfall is built around. You take the photo the way you already do, and it prompts you for the category and context in the moment, so the record is actually usable later instead of just existing.