Is streaming subscriptions
tax deductible?

Rarely. A personal Spotify, Netflix or similar subscription is not allowable, because it serves a personal purpose and is not incurred wholly and exclusively for the business (HMRC BIM37007). A service used only for the business, such as licensed background music for a salon or a platform you publish on, can be.

Music while you work, a film to wind down, research for a creative project: streaming subscriptions often feel connected to work. For tax, the test is whether the cost is wholly and exclusively for the business. A personal subscription that you also use for work fails it.

Is streaming subscriptions 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, Office, property and equipment.

HMRC's Business Income Manual explains the wholly and exclusively rule: an expense is only deductible if it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade (BIM37007). A subscription that serves personal enjoyment as well as the business has a dual purpose and is not deductible. Where there is an identifiable business part, such as a separate business account used only for work, that part can be claimed (office, property and equipment).

When you can claim it

• Licensed background music for business premises, such as a salon, café or shop.
• A platform subscription you need to publish or sell your own content or products.
• A separate business account used only for work, such as a music library licensed for commercial video.
• Industry research services used only for the business.

When you cannot

• Personal music and video subscriptions, even if you listen while working.
• Family streaming plans.
• Subscriptions used for relaxation, inspiration or general interest.
• A personal subscription used to play music in business premises, which is not licensed for that use anyway.

What to claim instead

If you play music in business premises, you usually need a licence for public performance rather than a personal streaming account, and the licence and a business music service are allowable. If you create content, a stock music or footage library licensed for commercial use is a business cost.

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 streaming subscriptions, 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 hair salon

A salon owner pays £132 a year for a personal music subscription and a separate £420 a year for a business background music service with the public performance licence she needs. The £420 is allowable; the personal £132 is not, even though she sometimes plays it in the salon.

Why a personal subscription fails the test

The wholly and exclusively rule asks about purpose. Listening to music helps many people work, but it is also something you enjoy for its own sake, and the cost would exist without the business. That dual purpose means no part of a personal subscription is deductible, unlike a phone bill, where business calls can be identified and separated.

Creators and performers

For musicians, DJs, producers and content creators, some services are genuine tools of the trade: sample libraries, distribution platforms, stock footage, and software needed to publish. Those are allowable. A general streaming account used to keep up with music or film trends is still personal, however closely it relates to your work.

Music in business premises

Playing music to customers in a shop, salon or café is a public performance and needs the appropriate licence. Consumer streaming plans are generally licensed for personal use only. A business music service, and the licence, are costs of running the premises and allowable.

Where allowable services go

An allowable business subscription usually goes in other business expenses (box 30) or office costs (box 23). Music licences for premises can sit with premises running costs. A personal subscription paid from the business account is drawings, not an expense.

When a streaming cost is part of the product

Some businesses pay for streaming services as part of what they sell: a gym licensing video classes, a café paying for screens showing sport under a commercial licence, or a trainer using a paid platform to host client workouts. When the service is a cost of delivering the business's own product, and licensed for that use, it is allowable. The test is always whether the personal element is absent, not whether the service is useful.

Where it goes on your return and in MTD

On the self-employment pages of your return, the claimable part of streaming subscriptions belongs in phone, stationery and other office costs (SA103F box 23). The same category is used in Making Tax Digital quarterly updates, so recording it in the right place once keeps both returns consistent.

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.

The accounting basis changes when a cost counts. On the cash basis, the default for sole traders since 2024/25, it counts when you pay it; on traditional accounting, when you incur it, with things you keep claimed through capital allowances.

How much an allowable cost saves

An allowable expense does not come back to you in full: it reduces your profit, so it saves tax at your marginal rate. For a sole trader in England, Wales or Northern Ireland that is 26p in the pound at the basic rate (20% Income Tax plus 6% Class 4 National Insurance) and 42p at the higher rate. The sole trader tax calculator works out the figure for your own profit.

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

Keep invoices for any business subscription, and a note of what it is used for. If a personal subscription is paid from the business account, record it as drawings so it stays out of expenses.

If Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to you (qualifying income over £50,000 from April 2026, £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028), the records must be digital, and each quarter's costs go into a quarterly update. Check your date with the MTD requirement checker.

Common mistakes

• Claiming a personal music or video subscription because you use it while working.
• Playing a personal streaming account in business premises and claiming it.
• Claiming a family plan on the business.

Related expenses

This item sits in the phone, stationery and other office costs category, alongside broadband and internet, laptops and computers, mobile phone, software and subscriptions and stationery and postage. The A to Z of expenses answers the same question for every other cost.

If you record your costs in TapTax, each one lands in the HMRC category it belongs to, with its receipt attached, so your quarterly updates and year-end return use the same figures.