Is medical and dental expenses
tax deductible?

No. Medical and dental treatment for yourself is personal, even if an injury or illness came from your work. HMRC's manual says medical expenditure on ensuring or restoring good health is not generally allowable (HMRC BIM37940). Medical treatment you provide for employees is a staff cost, usually a taxable benefit (GOV.UK).

If you hurt your back lifting materials, or strain your voice teaching, it feels like the treatment should be a business cost. HMRC's manual and the case law say otherwise. Restoring your health benefits you as a person, whether or not you go back to work, so medical and dental costs are personal.

Is medical and dental expenses 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, HMRC Business Income Manual BIM47060: staffing costs: health and safety.

HMRC's manual says medical expenditure on ensuring or restoring good health is not generally allowable, citing Norman v Golder, where a court shorthand writer could not deduct medical bills for an illness he said was caused by his work (BIM37940). In Prince v Mapp, surgery on a guitarist's finger was disallowed because it also served a personal purpose (BIM37945). Medical treatment for employees is a reportable benefit (medical treatment).

When you can claim it

• Medical treatment or insurance for employees, as a staff cost.
• Occupational health services for employees.
• First aid kits and training for the workplace.
• Health and safety equipment that prevents injury at work.

When you cannot

• Your own GP, dentist or hospital costs.
• Physiotherapy or surgery for yourself, even for a work injury.
• Prescriptions and medicines for yourself.
• Treatment for your family.

What to claim instead

First aid kits, workplace safety equipment and training are allowable because they protect the workplace, not your personal health. For your own treatment, the costs are personal, and some people use private medical insurance paid from after-tax income.

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 medical and dental expenses, 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 plasterer’s injury

A plasterer injures his shoulder at work and pays £600 for private physiotherapy. The physiotherapy is personal, even though the injury happened at work. The £40 first aid kit and £90 first aid course he buys afterwards for his van and his team are allowable.

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.

Work-caused illness and injury

The cause of an illness does not change the answer. In Norman v Golder, a court shorthand writer argued that his illness was caused by poor working conditions, but his medical bills were not deductible. Being healthy benefits you as a person, so the purpose is never purely business.

Performers and specialist skills

In Prince v Mapp, a draughtsman who also played guitar professionally and as a hobby could not deduct surgery on his finger, because it also let him play for pleasure. HMRC's manual notes that a trivial injury treated only for business reasons could in theory pass, but this is rare.

Employees

Medical treatment and insurance for employees are allowable staff costs. For employees they are usually a taxable benefit, but some things are exempt, such as one health screening and one medical check-up a year, and up to £500 of treatment recommended to help them return to work.

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.

Where it goes

Employee medical costs go with staff costs, box 19. First aid and safety equipment go in other business expenses, box 30. Your own treatment goes 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 treatment for a work injury.
• Claiming dental work for yourself.
• Missing allowable first aid and safety costs.

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.