Every tax-deductible expense a cleaning business can claim — the complete 2026-27 list

The golden rule: wholly and exclusively

HMRC allows expenses that are "wholly and exclusively" incurred for business purposes. This is the test every expense must pass. It comes from Section 34 of the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005, and HMRC applies it consistently across all sole trader income tax returns.

In practice, this means:

• Expenses with a purely personal element never qualify — a holiday that you describe as a "business trip" but involves personal travel and leisure does not pass the test.
• Dual-purpose expenses are acceptable if you can justify the split — if your mobile phone is used 70% for business and 30% personally, you can claim 70% of the bill. Keep records of how you calculated the split.
• The purpose at the time of expenditure is what matters — HMRC looks at why you incurred the cost, not whether it turned out to be useful.

The key practical implication for cleaning businesses: your customer-facing work creates genuine business expenses at almost every step — travel, materials, equipment, insurance, communications. The challenge is not identifying whether something is claimable in principle, but making sure you're recording it consistently and keeping the receipts.

Mileage and vehicle costs

For most cleaning sole traders, vehicle costs are the single largest expense category. HMRC offers two methods for claiming vehicle costs, and you must choose one and stick with it for the life of the vehicle.

Method 1: Simplified mileage rates (most common)

You claim a flat rate per business mile driven, regardless of your actual vehicle costs. HMRC's approved rates for 2026-27:

Vehicle type	First 10,000 business miles	Above 10,000 miles
Car or van	45p per mile	25p per mile
Motorcycle	24p per mile	24p per mile
Bicycle	20p per mile	20p per mile

Worked example: a window cleaner who drives 12,000 business miles in the tax year calculates their mileage claim as follows: (10,000 miles × 45p) + (2,000 miles × 25p) = £4,500 + £500 = £5,000 total mileage claim. This reduces taxable profit by £5,000 directly.

Important rules for the simplified mileage method:

• Once you choose this method for a vehicle, you cannot switch to the actual costs method in a later year for the same vehicle.
• Commuting does not count. Driving from home to a fixed office or regular base of operations is not a business journey. However, for cleaning businesses where home is the genuine base of operations (no fixed external office), travel from home directly to client sites typically qualifies in full.
• The mileage rate covers all vehicle running costs — fuel, servicing, insurance, MOT, tyres. You cannot claim these separately on top of mileage.
• Keep a mileage log: date, start point, destination, purpose, miles. A spreadsheet or app records are fine.

Method 2: Actual costs

You claim the business-use proportion of all actual running costs — fuel, servicing, MOT, road tax, insurance, repairs, and capital allowances on the vehicle purchase price. This method is more complex and requires meticulous record-keeping. It tends to be worthwhile only for higher-value vehicles with very high business-use proportions. For most cleaning sole traders, simplified mileage is simpler and often produces a comparable or better result.

Cleaning materials and equipment

Everything you buy to actually do the cleaning work is allowable. This category is typically straightforward because the business purpose is obvious.

Fully allowable:

• Cleaning chemicals, sprays, descalers, detergents
• Microfibre cloths, mops, sponges, scrubbing pads
• Buckets, caddies, spray bottles
• Vacuum cleaners, steam cleaners, pressure washers
• Window cleaning equipment (squeegees, poles, water-fed pole systems)
• Carpet cleaning machines
• Replacement heads, filters, bags and other consumables

For equipment, the tax treatment depends on the cost:

• Low-cost items (typically under £1,000) — can usually be expensed in full in the year of purchase as a revenue expense.
• Higher-cost items — may need to be treated as capital assets and claimed via the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA). The AIA limit is currently £1,000,000, which means virtually all cleaning equipment — including commercial-grade machinery — qualifies for 100% first-year relief. In practice, you claim the full cost of the asset in the year you buy it.

Uniforms and PPE

The rules here are specific, and getting them wrong is a common error.

Item	Allowable?	Reason
Branded uniform with company name/logo	Yes — fully	Serves a business purpose, not suitable as everyday wear
Non-branded workwear (e.g. plain black trousers)	No	Could be worn outside work — fails the wholly & exclusively test
Gloves, masks, goggles (PPE)	Yes — fully	Required for health & safety during work
Protective overalls worn only for work	Yes — fully	Occupational clothing not worn outside work
Everyday shoes or trainers	No	Dual purpose — wearable outside work
Steel-toed safety boots (occupational use)	Yes — fully	Specialist safety footwear required for the job

The practical implication: if you want to claim workwear, get it branded. A set of embroidered polo shirts with your business name costs very little extra and converts an otherwise non-allowable clothing purchase into a fully claimable expense — while also serving as marketing.

Business insurance

Insurance is a significant expense for cleaning businesses, and most of it is fully allowable.

• Public liability insurance — fully allowable. Most cleaning clients require this, typically at £1m to £2m minimum cover.
• Employer's liability insurance — fully allowable. Legally required if you employ anyone, even temporarily.
• Van or vehicle insurance (business use) — allowable in proportion to business use. If you use the actual costs method for your vehicle, claim the business-use proportion. If you use simplified mileage, the mileage rate already covers this, so you cannot claim separately.
• Professional indemnity insurance — fully allowable. If you work in specialist environments (offices, healthcare facilities) where errors could result in claims against you, this is a legitimate business cost.
• Tools and equipment insurance — fully allowable. Covers theft or damage to your cleaning equipment.
• Personal health or income protection insurance — NOT allowable as a business expense. Premiums for personal insurance products must come from post-tax income.

Phone and internet

For most cleaning business owners, the phone is central to how the business operates — booking jobs, communicating with clients, using scheduling apps. The allowable proportion depends on how the account is set up.

• Dedicated business phone — 100% allowable. If you have a separate SIM or contract used exclusively for business, claim the full cost.
• Personal phone used partly for business — claim the business-use percentage only. If you use your phone 60% for business (calls to clients, WhatsApp for job confirmations, using Cadi), claim 60% of the monthly bill. Keep a note of how you calculated the percentage.
• Home broadband used partly for business — claim the business proportion. If you use your home connection for admin, scheduling, and banking, a 20-40% business-use proportion is usually reasonable depending on your household.
• Mobile data costs — same rule as the phone bill. Business-use proportion is allowable.

Marketing and advertising

Any cost incurred to generate business is allowable. For cleaning businesses, this typically includes:

• Website costs — hosting, domain registration, design work, and ongoing maintenance are all fully allowable.
• Google Ads or Meta Ads spend — fully allowable. Paid advertising is a direct business cost with an obvious commercial purpose.
• Leaflets and flyers — fully allowable. Local leaflet drops are still one of the most cost-effective ways to acquire domestic cleaning clients.
• Local newspaper or directory adverts — fully allowable.
• Social media management tools — subscription software used to schedule or manage business posts is allowable.
• Photography for your business — before-and-after job photos taken by a professional photographer are allowable. Equipment bought specifically for business photography is allowable (see equipment section).
• Your own time creating content — NOT allowable. Sole trader labour cannot be expensed as a cost of the business. Only cash costs qualify.

Professional fees and software

Any professional services you pay for to help run your business are generally allowable.

• Accountant or tax adviser fees — fully allowable. This includes the cost of preparing your Self Assessment return.
• Bookkeeping and accounting software (Cadi, QuickBooks, Xero, FreeAgent, etc.) — fully allowable. Subscriptions to software used to manage your business finances are a direct business expense.
• Scheduling and job management software — fully allowable.
• CRM or client management tools — fully allowable.
• Professional membership fees — membership of recognised industry bodies such as the British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc), the National Carpet Cleaners Association (NCCA), or the Federation of Master Cleaners is fully allowable.
• Legal fees relating to the business — allowable in most cases, including contracts of employment, lease agreements for storage or office space, and debt recovery. Legal costs relating to capital transactions (buying a vehicle or property) are not revenue expenses and are treated differently.
• Bank charges — charges on a dedicated business bank account are allowable. Charges on a personal account used for business are allowable in proportion to business use.

Working from home

If you run your cleaning business administration from home — scheduling jobs, chasing invoices, doing your accounts — you can claim a proportion of your home running costs. There are two methods:

Simplified method (HMRC flat rate)

HMRC's flat rate for home working is £10 per month if you work from home for 25–50 hours per month, rising to £18/month for 51–100 hours and £26/month for over 100 hours. These rates are so low that they rarely produce a meaningful deduction and are generally not worth the administrative simplicity they offer.

Actual costs method

You calculate a proportion of actual home costs — rent or mortgage interest, utility bills (gas, electricity, water), and council tax — based on the number of rooms in your home and the proportion of time that room is used for business purposes.

A simple approach: if your home has 5 rooms and you use one room for business purposes 40% of the time (accounting and admin, not watching TV), your business proportion is 1/5 × 40% = 8% of total home costs. On a combined utilities and rent bill of £1,500/month, that produces an £120/month or £1,440/year deduction — materially better than the HMRC flat rate.

Note: if you own your home and claim a room as a dedicated business space, HMRC may argue this creates a capital gains tax liability on that proportion of the property when you sell. Most sole traders who work from home part-time take the proportional approach without dedicating an entire room exclusively to business use to avoid this complication.

Training and professional development

Training directly relevant to your cleaning business is allowable. The key test is whether the training updates or improves skills you already use — rather than training you for an entirely different profession.

• BICSc certification and assessments — fully allowable. Industry-standard cleaning qualifications are directly relevant to the business.
• Specialist cleaning courses — fully allowable. This includes courses in carpet cleaning, hard floor restoration, trauma cleaning, or infection control.
• Health and safety training — fully allowable. COSHH awareness, manual handling, working at height, and first aid courses all qualify.
• Business skills training — generally allowable if it relates to running your existing business. A bookkeeping course taken to manage your own accounts is allowable; an MBA generally is not.
• Conferences and trade events — allowable if attended for genuine business purposes. Reasonable travel and accommodation costs connected to attendance are also allowable.
• Training for a new profession — NOT allowable. If you enrolled in a nursing degree while running your cleaning business, the tuition fees do not qualify as a business expense of the cleaning business.

How to record expenses correctly

HMRC can open an enquiry into your Self Assessment return for up to 12 months after filing (and longer if there is suspected fraud or careless error). You are required to retain records for at least five years after the January filing deadline for the relevant tax year — so for 2024-25, that means keeping records until at least January 2031.

What HMRC expects:

• A receipt or invoice for every expense — this shows the date, amount, supplier, and what was purchased. Bank statements alone are not sufficient. HMRC wants evidence of what was bought, not just that money left your account.
• Digital copies are fine — photograph paper receipts with your phone immediately after you receive them. A clear, legible image is accepted. Apps like Cadi, Dext, or even Google Photos can store these systematically.
• A record of business purpose — for anything that might not be obvious (a restaurant meal, a hotel night), note who you met and why. "Client meeting with XYZ Offices Ltd re contract renewal" is sufficient.
• Mileage logs — date, start, destination, purpose, miles. Maintained contemporaneously (at the time of travel) rather than reconstructed at year-end.