Can my company claim for a laptop, phone or home office?

• Capital allowances are available for capital spending on plant or machinery provided wholly or partly for the purposes of the company's qualifying activity, where the company owns it as a result. Items of a capital nature cannot be deducted from trading profits (Corporation Tax Act 2009, section 53). HMRC's Capital Allowances Manual (CA21010) says computers and similar electronic devices are machinery.

• Annual Investment Allowance: the maximum is £1,000,000 under the text of Capital Allowances Act 2001, section 51A in force on 16 September 2026. If the period is more or less than a year, the maximum is increased or reduced in proportion. For a 9-month period it is 9/12 x £1,000,000 = £750,000. On any amount above the allowance, claim first-year or writing down allowances.

• Shared allowance: companies controlled by the same person and related to one another in a financial year get a single Annual Investment Allowance between them (section 51E). Two companies are related if they carry on their activities from the same premises, or each gets more than 50% of its turnover from the same first-level NACE classification (section 51G). A parent company and its subsidiaries also share a single allowance (section 51C).

• Full expensing (section 45S) needs all four: spent on or after 1 April 2023; spent by a company within the charge to Corporation Tax; unused and not second-hand; not excluded by section 45T or section 46. It gives 100% on main-rate items and 50% on special rate items (section 52).

• A laptop is a main rate item. GOV.UK gives the main rate of writing down allowance on all plant and machinery unless it must go into the special rate pool or a single asset pool, and a laptop is not in its list of special rate items.

• You cannot claim more than one allowance against the same spending.

• Part business, part other use (section 205): if equipment is bought partly for other purposes, the allowance must be reduced to a "just and reasonable" amount. The circumstances that count include, in particular, how far it is likely to be used for other purposes.

• HMRC's Capital Allowances Manual (CA27100) accepts that an asset provided for a director's private use, as part of a pay package taxed on the director, is bought wholly and exclusively for the business. If the asset is machinery, the claim should be accepted. The same paragraph says a benefit charge on the director does not necessarily stop HMRC refusing allowances, and a blatant mismatch between the asset and the business's needs may let HMRC restrict them.

• Our reading: if so, section 205 should not reduce the claim, subject to the limits in the same paragraph. Where private use is insignificant and no benefit is taxed, we treat the laptop as not bought partly for other purposes, so the claim is not reduced. This is our reading, not HMRC's: the insignificant-use rule is about the director's income tax, not the company's allowance.

SourcesThe law·HMRC·GOV.UK

• Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 319: no income tax arises on the provision of one mobile telephone for an employee without any transfer of property in it. This includes its use on one mobile number.

• From 6 April 2006, the exemption covers one phone for private use for each employee, and phones for the employee's family and household are excluded (EIM21778, EIM21779).

• Two connections to two different numbers count as two phones. If two phones are provided for business and private use, one is exempt and the other is a benefit. The one-phone limit does not change the treatment of phones provided only for business use.

• If the employee arranges the phone and the company pays the supplier, the company reports the cost on form P11D and pays Class 1 National Insurance through payroll.

SourcesThe law·HMRC·GOV.UK

• Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 316A: no income tax arises on an employer's payment for reasonable additional household expenses the employee incurs in carrying out the duties of the employment at home under homeworking arrangements.

• "Homeworking arrangements" are arrangements between employee and employer under which the employee regularly performs some or all of the duties at home. "Household expenses" are expenses connected with the day-to-day running of the employee's home. The arrangements need not be in writing but usually will be (EIM01472).

• The guideline rate is £6 a week or £26 a month for monthly paid employees from 6 April 2020. For tax years 2012 to 2020 it was £4 a week or £18 a month (EIM01476).

• Above that limit, the employer must be able to prove the payments are no more than the employee's additional household expenses. Any excess over those expenses counts as earnings: add it to the employee's other earnings and deduct PAYE tax and Class 1 National Insurance through payroll.

• HMRC's use-of-home guidance in the Business Income Manual (BIM47820, BIM47825) is for self-employed people, applies to Income Tax only, and does not apply to an employee or director.

• From 6 April 2026 an employee can no longer deduct additional household expenses from earnings (section 360B, inserted by Finance Act 2026 for the tax year 2026-27 and later years). This applies only to unreimbursed household expenses. Travel expenses under section 337 are not affected (EIM32759).

• Before that, HMRC accepted that an employee who met the conditions for relief could deduct £6 a week, or £26 a month for monthly paid employees, without justifying the figure. An earlier rate was £4 a week or £18 a month (EIM32815). That deduction is separate from the section 316A exemption for employer payments (EIM32760).

• Our reading: a payment from your company is not an unreimbursed expense, so the 2026 change does not affect the section 316A exemption.

SourcesThe law·HMRC·GOV.UK

• Corporation Tax Act 2009, section 54: no deduction is allowed for expenses not incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade. Where an expense has more than one purpose, an identifiable part spent wholly and exclusively for the trade can still be deducted.

• HMRC's Business Income Manual (BIM37700) says normal employee costs, including directors', are allowable. Exceptions include capital costs, dividends and "excessive" pay.

• BIM42560: if expenditure is incurred as part of the remuneration package, it should be considered part of the cost of employing the person concerned, and a deduction allowed accordingly. The page applies this to employees, including directors.

• BIM47107: where a company's expense linked to a director's personal interests is taxable on the director as part of the remuneration package, HMRC allows the deduction as part of the costs of employing the director.

• Rent for assets leased for employees or directors is normally allowable. In a family-controlled company, leasing for a director may exceptionally be disallowed as not wholly and exclusively for the trade, which would then be rewarding the service of the director or employee (BIM46825).

• GOV.UK: revenue expenses are the costs of the day-to-day running of the business, usually regular or recurring, and are deductible if incurred wholly for a business purpose. Capital expenses cannot be deducted, though capital allowances may be available.

• Both items come from the company as employer. The phone exemption (Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 319) covers one mobile phone provided for an employee, and GOV.UK's condition is a contract between the employer and the supplier. Section 316A covers an employer's payment for household expenses the employee incurs in carrying out the duties of the employment at home.

SourcesThe law·HMRC·GOV.UK