Simplified expenses

If you're trading as a partnership, there are certain expenses you can charge your business and therefore get a tax deduction for (but please note you can't use these simplified expenses if one of the partners is a limited company).

And the good news for the business partners is that you can use the simplified expenses rules for some of these expenses.  So let's look at the simplified expenses first.

The expenses you can claim using the simplified expenses rules are as follows:

Motor expenses - simplified

Rather than calculating the actual costs of running your car each year and then claiming the business proportion (as shown here), under the simplified expenses rules for self-employed business owners (NOT limited companies) you can simply claim a flat rate per business mile if you use your own car, van or motorbike for work.

The rates are currently (April 2020) as follows:

So if you've driven 11,000 business miles in a year you can claim £4,750 (10,000*45p + 1,000*25p).

To see the up to date rates, click here.

If you're using FreeAgent, you can see how to claim back expenses here and mileage here.

If you're using Xero you can see more about this in Section 17 of the Xero bookkeeping topic here.

Working from home - simplified

Rather than working out a proportion of your actual home costs (you can see how to do this here), you can claim a flat rate based if you work more than 25 hours a month from home.

Let's assume you worked 40 hours a month for 10 months and then 60 hours a month for 2 months, you could claim £10*10 + £18*2 = £136.

Living at your business premises

If you live at your business premises (eg a bed & breakfast) you can claim a flat rate per month based on the number of people living at the premises as follows: