On this page, we discuss expenses you might incur before you start trading and how you can claim tax relief for them.

Basis period reform only affects some self-employed individuals and partners in partnerships. If you are affected, the way you report your profits for tax purposes changed from the 2023/24 tax year onwards. This page explains what basis periods are, the changes made under basis period reform, who ...

When you are self-employed, you will usually have to pay expenses that relate to your business. On this page, we discuss which business expenses are allowable for tax purposes. When we say business expenses are ‘allowable’ this means that the tax rules allow the particular expense to be deducted ...

Sole traders and partnerships must prepare business accounts to complete their self assessment tax returns or, from 2026/27 onwards, end of year returns under Making Tax Digital for income tax. Accounts show income and expenses of the business for the accounting period and can be prepared by using ...

Sole traders and partnerships must prepare business accounts to show the income and expenses of the business for the period covered by the accounts. There are two ways to prepare business accounts- the cash basis which is designed to be a simpler way of preparing accounts, or traditional accounting ...

Our PDF guide to self-employment supplements the information in this self-employment section.