Is glasses and eye tests
tax deductible?

No. Glasses, contact lenses and eye tests for yourself are personal, because good eyesight benefits you whatever your work (GOV.UK). The exceptions are specialist protective eyewear needed for the job, which is protective equipment, and eye tests and glasses you provide for employees who use screens, which are allowable staff costs.

A designer who stares at a screen all day, a jeweller doing close work, a driver who must meet the eyesight standard: all need good vision for their work, and all would like to claim their glasses. The tax rules say no, because eyesight is a personal need that you would have whatever your job. Protective eyewear is different, and so are glasses you provide to employees.

Is glasses and eye tests tax deductible?

The HMRC rule

A cost is only allowable if it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. Everyday living costs, health, appearance and leisure have a personal purpose, so they are not allowable even when they help you work. The rule comes from HMRC Business Income Manual BIM37007: wholly and exclusively, Clothing expenses.

Only costs incurred wholly and exclusively for the business are allowable (expenses overview). HMRC's manual says medical expenditure on ensuring or restoring good health is not generally allowable (BIM37940). Protective equipment needed for work is allowable in the same way as protective clothing (clothing expenses). Benefits you provide to employees, including health-related ones, are staff costs (staff expenses).

When you can claim it

• Safety glasses, goggles and visors for work.
• Prescription safety glasses, where the job requires eye protection.
• Eye tests for employees who use display screens.
• Glasses for employees needed only for screen use.

When you cannot

• Your own everyday glasses or contact lenses.
• Your own eye tests.
• Laser eye surgery.
• Sunglasses, unless protective equipment for the work.

What to claim instead

If your work needs eye protection and you wear prescription glasses, prescription safety glasses are protective equipment and allowable. Ordinary glasses remain personal.

How to decide if you can claim it

1. Was it for the business? A cost is only allowable if you incur it wholly and exclusively for the business. If it also serves a personal purpose that cannot be separated, such as clothing that keeps you warm or a meal that keeps you going, HMRC disallows it.
2. Is part of it personal? Where a cost has a business part you can identify, such as the business calls on a phone bill or the business miles in a car, you claim that part and leave the rest out, on a reasonable basis you can explain.
3. Is it a running cost or something you keep? It is a running cost, so on the cash basis it counts when you pay it and on traditional accounting when you incur it. Nothing about it needs spreading over later years.
4. Is there a specific rule? For glasses and eye tests, the deciding rule is personal costs: a cost is only allowable if it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. Everyday living costs, health, appearance and leisure have a personal purpose, so they are not allowable even when they help you work.

Worked example: a joiner’s eyewear

A joiner spends £220 on new everyday glasses, £30 on an eye test and £160 on prescription safety glasses for use on site. The £160 safety glasses are protective equipment and allowable. The £250 of everyday glasses and the eye test are personal.

The wholly and exclusively test

An expense is allowable only if it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the business. HMRC's manual explains that some costs have an intrinsic duality of purpose: they meet a personal need, such as health, warmth or appearance, whatever else they do. Where a personal purpose is part of the reason for the spending, even a small part that cannot be separated, the whole cost fails the test.

Protective eyewear

Safety glasses, goggles and face shields protect against a hazard at work, such as flying debris, chemicals or bright light from welding. They are protective equipment, allowable like hi-vis or safety boots. Prescription versions are allowable where the job requires eye protection.

Employees and screens

Employers must provide an eye test for employees who use display screens as a significant part of their work, on request, and pay for basic glasses if they are needed specifically for screen work. These costs are allowable, and they are not a taxable benefit for the employee.

Eye surgery

Laser surgery or other treatment to improve your eyesight is medical treatment, personal in the same way as glasses. HMRC's manual follows cases where surgery to restore function was disallowed because it also served personal purposes.

Paying personal costs from the business account

Sole traders often pay personal costs from the account they use for the business. That is allowed, but the payment is drawings, not an expense. Record it that way in your bookkeeping so it does not end up in your expense totals. If your accounts do include it, the full self-employment pages have a disallowable column, box 45 for other expenses, where the same amount is added back.

Driving eyesight standards

Drivers must meet the legal eyesight standard, and professional drivers have stricter requirements. Glasses needed to meet those standards are still personal, because they correct your eyesight for everything you do.

Where it goes

Protective eyewear goes with other protective equipment in other business expenses, box 30. Employees' eye tests go with staff costs. Personal glasses go nowhere on the return.

Where it goes on your return and in MTD

Because it is not allowable, a sole trader leaves it out of expenses altogether. If it went through your business account, record it as drawings or a non-business payment, and if your accounts include it, add the same amount back in the disallowable column of the full self-employment pages.

If your turnover was under £90,000, you can use the short self-employment pages (SA103S), which ask for a single figure for total allowable expenses rather than a box-by-box breakdown, and the full pages let you give just a total in box 31 too. The category still matters for your own records and for Making Tax Digital, where each quarterly update uses the same categories unless you choose to send one consolidated figure.

Most sole traders now use the cash basis, the default from the 2024/25 tax year, which counts a cost when you pay it. On traditional accounting you count it when you incur it, and equipment you keep goes through capital allowances rather than expenses.

How much an allowable cost saves

The value of a deduction is the tax it removes from your profit, not the cost itself. At the basic rate a sole trader saves 26p for every pound of allowable expense, at the higher rate 42p, and in the personal allowance taper between £100,000 and £125,140 as much as 62p. Landlords pay no Class 4 on rental profit, so they save 20p or 40p.

What £1,000 of allowable expense saves a sole trader in 2026/27

• Basic rate (20% + 6%)£260
• Higher rate (40% + 2%)£420
• Additional rate (45% + 2%)£470
• Allowance taper band (60% + 2%)£620

Records to keep

You do not need business records for personal costs. If a personal cost was paid from the business account, record it as drawings so it is excluded from your expenses. For any business element you do claim, keep the receipt and a note of the business reason.

From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 keep these records digitally and send quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital, falling to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. The MTD requirement checker shows when it applies to you.

Common mistakes

• Claiming everyday glasses because you use a screen for work.
• Claiming your own eye tests.
• Missing allowable prescription safety glasses.

Related expenses

This item sits in the other business expenses category, alongside art and collectibles, care home fees, charity donations, clothing and workwear, cryptocurrency, fines and penalties, funeral costs and furniture. The A to Z of expenses answers the same question for every other cost.

TapTax sorts each cost into the right category as you record it, applies the business share where you set one, and keeps the receipts with the figures, ready for your quarterly updates and final return.