Expenses if you're self-employed: Office, property and equipment

Summary

Claim items you’d normally use for less than 2 years as allowable expenses, for example:

stationery

Claim items you’d normally use for less than 2 years as allowable expenses, for example:

stationery

rent, rates, power and insurance costs

For equipment you keep to use in your business, for example computers or printers, claim:

allowable expenses if you use cash basis accounting

capital allowances if you use traditional accounting

You cannot claim for any non-business use of premises, phones or other office resources.

Stationery

You can claim expenses for:

phone, mobile, fax and internet bills

postage

stationery

printing

printer ink and cartridges

computer software your business uses for less than 2 years

computer software if your business makes regular payments to renew the licence (even if you use it for more than 2 years)

Claim other software for your business as capital allowances, unless you use cash basis.

Rents, rates, power and insurance costs

You can claim expenses for:

rent for business premises

business and water rates

utility bills

property insurance

security

using your home as an office (only the part that’s used for business)

Business premises

You cannot claim expenses or allowances for buying building premises.

Claim expenses for repairs and maintenance of business premises and equipment.

For alterations to install or replace equipment, claim:

allowable expenses if you use cash basis accounting

capital allowances if you use traditional accounting

You can also claim capital allowances for some integral parts of a building, for example water heating systems.