Expenses and allowances
What can my company deduct, and what can I claim?
Expenses and allowances are the costs your company can set against its profits. These entries explain what the company can deduct, what you can claim as a director, and which records to keep.
Each entry below answers one question and lists the official sources it rests on.
Allowable expenses
Which expenses can my company deduct?
The "only for the business" test for company costs, how mixed costs are split, and why equipment and dividends are treated differently.
Published
What is the difference between revenue and capital spending?
How to tell a day-to-day cost from capital spending, why it changes your tax, and how repairs, instalments and short-life items are treated.
Published
Can my company claim for a laptop, phone or home office?
How your company treats a laptop, a work phone and payments for working from home, and when you pay tax on them.
Published
Capital allowances
What is the Annual Investment Allowance and how do I claim it?
How the Annual Investment Allowance takes the full cost of equipment off your profits, what qualifies, and how and when to claim it.
Published
What is full expensing and does it help a small company?
What full expensing gives, what it excludes, why the Annual Investment Allowance usually does the same job, and what happens when you sell.
Published
Director costs
Can my company deduct my own salary and pension contributions?
When your company can deduct your salary and its pension contributions for you, and the timing rules that decide which year they count in.
Published
From other topics
How are a micro-entity's fixed assets measured, and can it revalue them?
How a micro-entity records equipment and property at cost, depreciates it, writes it down, and treats depreciation for tax.
Published
How should a micro-entity account for intangible assets and goodwill?
How a micro-entity shows bought licences and goodwill, why home-made brands and logos are never assets, and how both are written off.
Published
How do accruals and prepayments work in my company's accounts?
How a micro-entity puts costs and income in the right year, including wages, holiday pay, bonuses, rent and customer deposits.
Published
How do I show a lease in my company's accounts?
How a micro-entity shows finance and operating leases, rent-free months and future lease payments in its accounts.
Published
How do I show a government grant in my company's accounts?
When a micro-entity records a government grant, how it spreads grants for costs and for assets, and how grants affect tax.
Published
In preparation
Nothing is published under these headings yet.
- Disallowed items
- Records
Related topics
Every topic in TaxpediaCorporation Tax
How the tax on your company's profits is worked out, reported and paid.
Annual accounts
Which accounts your company files, what goes in them, and how they reach Companies House.
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These pages explain the rules in general terms. They are not advice about your company's own figures. When something here matters to a decision, check the official source we link to.