What Can Self Employed Builders Claim on Tax UK — 2026

Updated June 2026 · 9 min read · BuilderLog Team

Most self employed builders underclaim on their tax return. Not because they’re careless, but because nobody gives them a builder-specific list of what counts. The generic HMRC guidance talks about “office costs” and “professional fees” — not skip hire, scaffolding, or CSCS cards. Here’s the full list of what you can actually claim.

The big ones most builders miss

Van mileage — 55p per mile from April 2026

If you use your own van to travel between jobs, to merchants, to quotes, or to training courses, every business mile is claimable at 55p for the first 10,000 miles and 25p after that. A builder doing 10,000 business miles a year can claim £5,500. Most builders claim nothing because they never logged the journeys.

Skip hire and waste disposal

Every skip you hire for a job is a claimable business expense. So is any waste disposal, tip fees, or recycling charges. If you’re paying for waste removal on every job and not recording it, you’re losing a significant deduction.

Scaffolding hire

If you hire scaffolding for a job, the full cost is claimable. This can be hundreds of pounds per job on larger builds — it adds up fast over a year.

CSCS card

Your CSCS card renewal is a fully claimable business expense. So is the test fee if you’re upgrading or renewing your qualification. Many builders forget this because it feels like a personal cost — it isn’t, it’s 100% business.

The full list

Category	What you can claim
Materials & supplies	Timber, cement, bricks, plaster, fixings, adhesives, sealant — anything consumed on a job
Tools & equipment	Power tools, hand tools, drill bits, blades, PPE, workwear, tool belts, tool bags
Van mileage	55p/mile for first 10,000 business miles, 25p after (simplified expenses)
Skip & waste	Skip hire, waste disposal, tip fees, recycling charges
Scaffolding	Scaffolding hire for any job
Equipment hire	Digger hire, dumper hire, concrete mixer, any hired plant or equipment
Insurance	Public liability, professional indemnity, tool insurance, employers’ liability
CSCS & training	CSCS card, test fees, NVQ assessments, training courses, CPD
Subcontractor costs	Any payment to a subcontractor you hire to help on a job
Phone	Business proportion of your phone bill (typically 50–75%)
Parking & tolls	Parking charges, congestion charges, ULEZ fees, road tolls
Clothing & PPE	Steel toe boots, hard hat, hi-vis, knee pads, gloves — if it’s protective or branded
Accounting	Accountant fees, bookkeeping software, tax return preparation
Business bank fees	Monthly charges, transaction fees on your business account
Advertising	Checkatrade, MyBuilder, business cards, van signage, website hosting

What you can’t claim

Personal clothing — jeans, trainers, normal clothes even if you only wear them for work. Only protective or branded clothing counts.

Fines — parking fines, speeding fines, HSE fines. Never deductible, even if incurred on a job.

Food and drink — unless you’re travelling away from home overnight. A sandwich from the petrol station on the way to a local job doesn’t count.

Your own wages — as a sole trader, the money you take out of the business is not an expense. Your tax is calculated on your profit, which is what’s left after expenses.

How much difference does it make?

Let’s say you’re a self employed builder earning £55,000 a year. Without claiming expenses, your taxable profit is £55,000 and your income tax bill is roughly £8,500 plus National Insurance.

Now let’s say you claim £12,000 in legitimate expenses: £5,500 mileage, £2,000 skip hire, £1,500 tools, £1,200 scaffolding, £500 insurance, £400 CSCS + training, £400 phone, £500 other. Your taxable profit drops to £43,000 and your tax bill drops to roughly £6,100. That’s a saving of around £2,400 — just by recording what you were already spending.

CIS deductions — don’t forget to claim these back

If you work as a CIS subcontractor, your contractor deducts 20% (or 30% if you’re not registered) from your labour payments before paying you. These deductions are advance payments of your tax — not an extra tax on top.

When you file your self assessment return, you enter the total CIS deductions in box 38 (short form) or box 81 (full form). HMRC offsets these against your actual tax bill. If the deductions exceed what you owe — which happens regularly when you claim all your allowable expenses — HMRC refunds the difference.

Many builders never claim back their CIS overpayments because they either don’t file a return or don’t enter the deductions correctly. If you’ve had CIS deducted and haven’t filed, you could be owed hundreds or thousands.

Working from home

If you do any admin from home — invoicing, quoting, ordering materials, managing your accounts — you can claim a proportion of your household costs. HMRC offers a simplified flat rate: £10/month if you work 25-50 hours from home, £18/month for 51-100 hours, £26/month for 101+ hours. These are small amounts, but they add up over a year and require no receipts.

Alternatively, you can calculate the actual proportion of your home costs (rent/mortgage interest, utilities, broadband, council tax) that relate to your work space. This gives a larger deduction but requires more record-keeping.

Capital allowances — big purchases

Tools under £1,000 are straightforward revenue expenses — claim them in full in the year you buy them. Larger equipment purchases (a van, a cement mixer, expensive power tools) may qualify for capital allowances.

Under the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA), you can claim the full cost of qualifying equipment up to £1,000,000 in the year you buy it. For most sole trader builders, this means you can claim the full cost of a new van or major equipment immediately — but only the business-use proportion if the item has personal use too.