You can usually claim any expense that is wholly and exclusively for running your business, plus a few special self‑employed tax deductions. Below is a UK‑flavoured overview (since you referenced “self employed” and “Quick Scoop”, which commonly align with HMRC/UK‑style guidance); if you’re elsewhere, the categories are still useful but names and rules will differ.

Core idea: “Allowable expenses”

If an expense is purely for your business, you can normally deduct it from your self‑employed profits before tax is calculated. If it’s partly personal and partly business, you can usually claim just the business percentage. Think of it in three buckets:

  1. Fully business (usually claim 100%).
  2. Mixed use (claim only the business share).
  3. Purely personal (cannot claim).

Common things you can claim as self‑employed

These categories show up again and again in official guidance and tax help pages, and are widely treated as standard “allowable expenses” for self‑employed people in current practice.

1. Workspace and office

  • Home office costs (a proportion of rent or mortgage interest, council tax, utilities, broadband, based on business use).
  • Office rent (if you rent a separate office, studio or co‑working space).
  • Office running costs (lighting, heating, water, cleaning services for the office).
  • Office equipment and supplies (laptop, phone, printer, paper, pens, ink, small tools, stationery).
  • Software and subscriptions used for work (accounting apps, design tools, productivity apps, cloud storage).

For mixed‑use things (like broadband used at home), you normally claim only the business percentage, often using a reasonable method like hours used or room‑by‑room splits.

2. Travel and vehicles

  • Mileage or actual running costs for a car, van or motorcycle used for business (fuel, insurance, servicing, repairs, road tax, breakdown cover, parking fees).
  • Public transport for business trips (train, bus, tube, taxi, ride‑hail to visit clients, events, suppliers).
  • Business trips away from home (reasonable accommodation, local transport, some meals when travelling for work).
  • Congestion charges and tolls when travelling for business.

You normally cannot claim:

  • Ordinary commuting from home to a regular, permanent workplace.
  • Fines and penalties (like parking tickets or speeding fines).

3. Marketing, sales and communications

  • Website costs (domain name, hosting, templates, plugins, maintenance).
  • Advertising and marketing (online ads, print ads, flyers, business cards, sponsorships that promote your business).
  • Social media and content tools (paid scheduling tools, design apps used for content).
  • Phone costs (a dedicated business phone is usually fully deductible; a personal phone is usually only partly deductible based on business use).
  • Email and CRM tools used to manage customers and leads.

4. Professional services and fees

  • Accountants or bookkeepers.
  • Solicitors for business‑related matters (contracts, T&Cs, chasing unpaid invoices).
  • Business consultants or coaches.
  • Bank charges and interest on business accounts or business loans.
  • Payment processing fees on card payments or online payment platforms.

5. Staff, subcontractors and support

  • Wages and salaries for employees.
  • Employer’s NICs and pension contributions (depending on regime).
  • Subcontractors and freelancers you pay to deliver work.
  • Temporary staff, virtual assistants and specialist contractors.
  • Training costs to keep your staff’s skills current for your existing business.

6. Stock, materials and production costs

  • Raw materials and components used to make your products.
  • Stock and goods bought for resale.
  • Packaging and shipping materials.
  • Direct manufacturing or production costs.

If you hold stock, most systems expect you to track opening stock, purchases and closing stock over the year to calculate the cost of goods actually sold.

7. Insurance and protective items

  • Business insurance (public liability, professional indemnity, employer’s liability, product liability).
  • Insurance for business vehicles.
  • Some protective clothing and safety gear that is required and not everyday wear (e.g., hi‑vis, hard hats, steel‑toe boots, trade‑specific PPE).

Normal everyday clothing, even if you only wear it for work, is generally not treated as an allowable expense.

8. Training and professional development

  • Courses, seminars, conferences and webinars that update or improve skills you already use in your business.
  • Professional memberships and subscriptions to trade bodies, journals, and relevant industry publications.

Training for a completely new trade or career is often more restricted and may not be allowable in the same simple way, depending on local rules.

9. Self‑employed “special” deductions (tax‑system‑specific)

Most tax systems give self‑employed people a few extra, system‑level deductions separate from day‑to‑day business expenses:

  • A deduction for part of your self‑employment social security tax (in many systems you can claim roughly half of this as an adjustment to income, not as a business expense).
  • Health insurance premiums if you pay your own cover as a self‑employed person (often deductible, although sometimes not on the business schedule itself).
  • Contributions to certain self‑employed retirement or pension plans, up to limits.
  • For some countries, a “qualified business income” or similar deduction that lets you reduce taxable income by a percentage of your business profit, subject to conditions.

These don’t show up as “expenses” in your business accounts but still reduce tax.

10. Smaller everyday business costs (easy to miss)

A lot of modest items can add up over a year:

  • Business‑related books, online courses, and reference materials.
  • Postage and couriers for client work or deliveries.
  • App stores and small digital tools that support your work.
  • Minor repairs and maintenance on equipment you use for business.

Things you usually cannot claim

Even if you are self‑employed, most systems draw a hard line around private or personal spending:

  • Private living costs (rent or mortgage for your whole home, utilities, food and groceries, personal clothing).
  • Personal holidays or trips with only a token or incidental work element.
  • Everyday clothing, haircuts, personal grooming.
  • Fines and penalties (parking fines, speeding fines, late‑payment penalties).
  • Money you pay yourself from the business (drawings, personal lifestyle spending).
  • Entertainment that is primarily social or personal, even if with clients.

If something has both business and personal elements, be ready to justify the split you use.

Quick HTML table: Typical self‑employed expenses

Because you asked in a blogging/SEO context, here is a compact HTML table you can embed directly:

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Expense category</th>
      <th>Examples</th>
      <th>Usually claimable?</th>
      <th>Notes</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Home office &amp; utilities</td>
      <td>Portion of rent, electricity, heating, broadband</td>
      <td>Yes, business portion</td>
      <td>Use a reasonable method to calculate the percentage.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Office equipment &amp; supplies</td>
      <td>Laptop, phone, printer, paper, stationery</td>
      <td>Yes</td>
      <td>Claim full cost if used only for business, otherwise apportion.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Travel &amp; vehicle</td>
      <td>Business mileage, fuel, servicing, train, taxi</td>
      <td>Yes, for business journeys</td>
      <td>Commuting to a regular workplace is usually not allowable.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Marketing &amp; advertising</td>
      <td>Website, online ads, flyers, business cards</td>
      <td>Yes</td>
      <td>Must be for promoting your business, not personal projects.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Professional fees</td>
      <td>Accountant, solicitor, consultants</td>
      <td>Yes</td>
      <td>Costs must relate to your business activities.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Staff &amp; subcontractors</td>
      <td>Employee wages, subcontractors, VAs</td>
      <td>Yes</td>
      <td>Include employer taxes and pension contributions where applicable.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Stock &amp; materials</td>
      <td>Raw materials, goods for resale, packaging</td>
      <td>Yes</td>
      <td>Track opening stock, purchases and closing stock each year.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Insurance</td>
      <td>Public liability, professional indemnity, vehicle insurance</td>
      <td>Yes</td>
      <td>Personal insurance is not normally claimable.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Training &amp; memberships</td>
      <td>Work‑related courses, trade bodies, journals</td>
      <td>Often</td>
      <td>Must relate to maintaining or improving existing business skills.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Personal living costs</td>
      <td>Groceries, rent for whole home, clothes, holidays</td>
      <td>No</td>
      <td>Not allowable as business expenses.</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

SEO‑friendly angle for your post

Because your prompt is tailored like a blog/forum post brief, here’s how you might shape it:

  • Use the phrase “what can I claim as self employed” naturally in:
    • Title and H1.
    • One or two H2s (e.g., “What can I claim as self employed from home?”).
    • Early in the intro and near the conclusion.
  • Break sections into:
    1. “Quick Scoop” style bullets (e.g., top 5 things people forget to claim).
    2. Separate mini‑sections for “Home office”, “Travel”, “Tiny expenses that add up”.
    3. A short reminder to keep receipts and log mileage.
  • Add a short “2026 update” paragraph that mentions that rules can change slightly year to year and readers should always check the latest guidance in their country before filing.

Important disclaimer

Tax rules vary a lot between countries and change over time. To avoid problems:

  • Check the official tax authority’s current guidance for self‑employed expenses in your country before you file.
  • If your situation is complex (multiple businesses, property, cross‑border work), speak to a qualified tax adviser.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.