Is travel expenses
tax deductible?

Yes. The cost of business journeys is allowable for sole traders: train, bus, tram, air and taxi fares, hotel rooms and meals on overnight business trips, and vehicle running costs or the mileage rate (GOV.UK). The one big exception is travel between home and a permanent workplace, which HMRC treats as commuting.

Travel is one of the few costs almost every sole trader has, and one of the most often misclaimed. The rules are simple once you separate the two questions HMRC asks: was the journey made for the business, and was it to a place you go to every day? Get those right and fares, hotels, taxis and vehicle costs are all allowable.

Is travel expenses tax deductible?

The HMRC rule

Vehicle insurance, repairs, fuel, parking, hire, road tax and breakdown cover, fares and hotel rooms for business trips are allowable. Travel between home and work, non-business journeys, and fines are not. The rule comes from Car, van and travel expenses, Self-employment (full) notes, SA103F, Work out your rental income when you let property.

GOV.UK lists the travel costs a sole trader can claim: vehicle insurance, repairs, servicing, fuel, parking, hire charges, vehicle tax, breakdown cover, train, bus, tram, air and taxi fares, hotel rooms and meals on overnight business trips. It also lists what you cannot claim: non-business driving or travel, fines or penalty charges, and travel between home and work (travel expenses). The SA103F notes add that other meals and the cost of buying vehicles are disallowable too (SA103F notes). Whether a journey is business travel depends on its purpose and destination: a trip to see a client is business, a trip to a workshop you use every day is commuting.

When you can claim it

• Fares for trains, buses, trams, flights and taxis on business journeys.
• Travel to clients, customers, suppliers, trade shows and temporary workplaces.
• Hotel rooms and reasonable meals when a business trip keeps you away overnight.
• Vehicle running costs for business journeys, or the simplified mileage rate instead.

When you cannot

• The daily journey between home and a permanent workplace, such as your shop or studio.
• Private journeys, holidays, or the leisure part of a trip that mixes business and pleasure.
• Fines, parking penalties and speeding tickets incurred on a business trip.
• Travel costs for your family, unless they work in the business and travel for it.

What to claim instead

If a trip is partly business and partly personal, you can usually claim the business element only when it can be separated: for example, the train fare to a conference is business if the conference was the reason for the trip, but extra nights you stay for a holiday are not. Where the personal and business purposes cannot be separated, HMRC can disallow the whole 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 travel expenses, the deciding rule is business travel and vehicle running costs: vehicle insurance, repairs, fuel, parking, hire, road tax and breakdown cover, fares and hotel rooms for business trips are allowable. Travel between home and work, non-business journeys, and fines are not.

Worked example: a freelance consultant

A consultant who works from home spends £1,240 in a year on train fares to client offices, £180 on taxis between stations and client sites, and £460 on two nights in a hotel for a client workshop, plus £85 for dinner on those nights. All of it is business travel, a total of £1,965, because home is her business base and every journey was to a client.

Home, base and permanent workplaces

Where your business is based decides what counts as commuting. If you genuinely run the business from home, journeys from home to clients and suppliers are business travel from the first mile. If you have premises you go to every day, such as a shop, salon or unit, the journey between home and those premises is commuting, and business travel starts when you leave the premises for a business destination. A building site or client office you work at for a limited period is usually a temporary workplace, so travel to it is business travel.

Trips that mix business and pleasure

A trip abroad to a trade fair followed by a week's holiday is the classic trap. The flight is claimable only if the main purpose of the trip was business; the holiday days, and any costs for a partner travelling with you, are not. Keep the conference booking, the agenda and a note of the business purpose with the receipts. If the trip would not have happened without the business reason, and the leisure part is incidental, the core travel cost is usually allowable.

Travel for landlords

Landlords can deduct travel costs incurred wholly for the letting business, such as visits to inspect a property, meet a tradesperson or collect rent, including vehicle running costs or mileage rate deductions (GOV.UK). The costs go in the travel costs category of a property update, and in box 29 on the UK property pages.

Public transport, taxis and ride-hailing

Public transport fares, taxis and ride-hailing apps are claimed at the actual cost, whether or not you also use the mileage rate for your own vehicle on other journeys. Keep the ticket, the booking confirmation or the app receipt, and note the business purpose if the destination does not make it obvious. Season tickets are only claimable if the journey they cover is business travel rather than commuting.

If you are a landlord

A landlord can claim the cost of travel wholly for the letting business, such as trips to a let property to inspect it, arrange repairs or show it to prospective tenants. A journey that combines a property visit with a personal trip is not wholly for the business, so only a clearly separable business journey counts.

Where it goes on your return and in MTD

For a sole trader, the allowable part goes under car, van and travel expenses (SA103F box 20 on the full self-employment pages). Under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, it goes in the same category of your quarterly update, which is the category TapTax files it under when you record the cost.

For a landlord, it belongs in travel costs (property) (SA105 box 29 on the UK property pages), and in the matching category of a Making Tax Digital property update.

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.

Records to keep

Keep every invoice and receipt for the vehicle, with a note of how you worked out the business share, such as a mileage log showing business and total miles for the year. HMRC may ask how you arrived at the percentage, and a log made at the time is the best evidence.

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 the daily trip to a regular workplace as business travel.
• Claiming a partner’s travel on a business trip when they do not work in the business.
• Including parking or speeding fines with travel costs.

Related expenses

This item sits in the car, van and travel expenses category, alongside buying a car, buying a van, car insurance, car leasing and PCP, car repairs and servicing, electric and hybrid cars, food and meals and fuel. 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.