Blog

Home /
Blog

UK Sole Trader Allowable Expenses: The Complete Guide

If you’re a UK sole trader, working out which costs count as allowable expenses is one of the most valuable things you can get right – every pound of a genuine business cost you claim is a pound that doesn’t get taxed as profit. It’s also an area where people go wrong in both directions: under-claiming out of caution, or over-claiming out of guesswork, and the second risks an HMRC enquiry. This guide covers the main categories of allowable expenses, what falls outside them, the principle HMRC applies to every claim, and why good records matter more than ever now that Making Tax Digital is rolling out. Where a specific rate or threshold is involved, we’ll point you to gov.uk rather than guess.

W-2 Job Plus a Side Gig: How Your Taxes Actually Work

Most people with a side gig don’t think of themselves as “self-employed.” You’ve got a regular W-2 job, and then you drive for a delivery app on weekends, or sell on Etsy in the evenings, or take the occasional freelance design project. It doesn’t feel like running a business. To the IRS, though, that side income runs through an entirely separate set of rules from your paycheck – and understanding how the two interact is the difference between a smooth April and an unpleasant surprise.

What Actually Goes in an MTD Quarterly Update

A lot of sole traders picture Making Tax Digital as uploading a folder of receipts to HMRC every three months — every coffee, every fuel stop, every invoice, scanned and sent off for inspection. That’s not what a quarterly update is, and the actual answer is a lot less invasive than most people assume.

What Digital Records Do You Actually Need for Making Tax Digital?

Ask most self-employed people what Making Tax Digital actually involves, and you’ll usually hear: “I’ll have to upload every receipt to HMRC.” It’s an understandable guess – the name alone sounds like scanning a shoebox of petrol receipts straight into a government portal. It doesn’t. What MTD for Income Tax actually requires is that you keep digital records of your income and expenses, and use them to send HMRC a running total each quarter. The receipts themselves stay with you. Knowing what counts as a digital record – and what doesn’t – is the difference between MTD feeling like an audit and feeling like slightly more organised bookkeeping.

What Receipts Does the IRS Actually Require?

Every freelancer has the same low-grade anxiety somewhere in the back of their mind: what if the IRS asks me to prove a deduction and I can’t find the receipt? It’s a reasonable thing to worry about, and also one of the most over-imagined. The IRS doesn’t require a filing cabinet of paper originals or a particular app or format. What it requires is a lot simpler than most people assume – and also stricter than a shoebox of crumpled receipts you can’t match to anything.

What to Actually Give Your Accountant as a Freelancer

There’s a specific kind of dread that shows up a few weeks before you’re due to meet your accountant: a folder of screenshots, a stack of paper receipts, a vague sense that you spent money on business things throughout the year without ever writing any of it down. You’re not alone – this is the single biggest reason freelancer tax prep costs more and takes longer than it needs to. It’s not that your finances are complicated. It’s that what you’re handing over isn’t what your accountant actually needs.

Your First MTD Year: A Record-Keeping Checklist for 2026–27

If you’re a UK sole trader or landlord newly mandated into Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from April 2026, the first year is the one that sets the pattern for every year after it. This MTD checklist covers everything in order — from confirming you’re actually in scope through to using this year’s built-in leniency properly instead of wasting it.

7 Dext Alternatives in 2026 (Formerly Receipt Bank) — Honest Comparison

People search for a Dext alternative for one of three reasons: the price (the Business plan is $302.50/year with a 250-document monthly cap, and practice plans start at ~$17.70 per client with a 10-client minimum), the billing experience (per-client price rises and cancellation friction are the most common complaints in reviews), or a simple mismatch — Dext is built for accounting firms, and many of the people paying for it just need their own receipts handled.

Best Receipt Scanner App for Taxes in 2026

Choosing the best receipt scanner app 2026 has to offer can feel overwhelming – there are dozens of options, and they all promise to simplify your expense tracking. But for freelancers, independent contractors, and sole traders who need accurate records for tax time, not every app is created equal. Some are built for large enterprises, others lack OCR entirely, and many charge $100+ a year for functionality you may never use. In this guide, we compare the top options and help you find the right fit.

Dext Pricing Explained (2026): Plans, Add-Ons, and What It Actually Costs

Dext’s pricing is famously hard to pin down: the business plan is straightforward, but add-ons are metered, accountant pricing is quoted per client behind a demo call, and the structure has changed more than once in recent years. This guide lays out the full picture as of August 2026 — and what it means depending on who you are.