Allowable expenses, van and mileage, equipment, PPE, cash record-keeping, NIC, VAT and MTD explained for UK self-employed end of tenancy and deep cleaners.
End of tenancy cleaning is a high-turnover, low-margin trade built on volume. A typical week is a string of empty flats and houses booked through letting agents, landlords and private tenants chasing their deposit back, each one paid the moment the keys change hands, often in cash or instant bank transfer. The work is physical and the money is fast, and that speed is exactly where cleaners trip up at tax time: dozens of small payments, some in cash, are easy to forget and impossible to reconstruct twelve months later.
This guide is built around how cleaners actually earn and spend: irregular cash and card jobs, a van full of chemicals and machines, mileage between properties, and the protective kit the job demands. Get your record-keeping right as the money lands and your Self Assessment becomes a quick summary rather than a stressful reconstruction.
As a sole trader you pay Income Tax on profit, which is your total cleaning income minus allowable expenses, not on everything you take. For 2025/26 the personal allowance covers the first GBP 12,570, then you pay 20% to GBP 50,270, 40% to GBP 125,140 and 45% above, with the personal allowance tapering away between GBP 100,000 and GBP 125,140 to create an effective 60% band. Class 4 National Insurance is 6% on profit between GBP 12,570 and GBP 50,270 and 2% above, while Class 2 NIC is settled through Self Assessment.
Scottish cleaners pay Scottish Income Tax on profit through six bands (19%, 20%, 21%, 42%, 45% and a 48% top rate) and carry an S-prefixed tax code, while National Insurance stays UK-wide. Welsh cleaners have a C-coded tax code at rates currently matching the rest of the UK. If you also have a part-time PAYE job, perhaps office cleaning on an employed contract alongside your own jobs, your tax code may already use your personal allowance, so check it through the tax code checker before you assume your first GBP 12,570 of self-employed profit is tax-free.
Many cleaners start small, taking a few end-of-tenancy jobs around another job or around the school run. The GBP 1,000 trading allowance is built for exactly this. If your gross self-employed cleaning income from all jobs is GBP 1,000 or less in a tax year, it is tax-free and you do not need to register for Self Assessment for it. Cross GBP 1,000 and you must register and report the full amount, including every cash job.
Once over the threshold you have a choice each year. You can deduct the flat GBP 1,000 trading allowance instead of working out actual expenses, or you can deduct your real allowable costs if they come to more than GBP 1,000. You cannot do both. For most working cleaners, chemicals, mileage and equipment easily top GBP 1,000, so claiming actual expenses wins. The flat allowance only suits someone doing the odd job with borrowed kit and no van. Total your costs and pick whichever leaves the lower profit.
This is the part of the trade HMRC watches most closely, because cleaning is a cash-heavy business. The deposit-driven nature of end of tenancy work means tenants pay on the day, often in cash, and agents pay by transfer days or weeks later. Three habits keep you safe:
Under the cash basis, which suits most cleaners, you record income when the money actually reaches you and expenses when you pay them, so there is no need to track unpaid invoices. The accruals basis records income when the work is done regardless of payment, which matters more once you carry large unpaid agent invoices across a tax year. Most sole-trader cleaners are better off on the cash basis.
An expense is allowable when incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. Unlike a desk-based trade, your costs are dominated by consumables, transport and equipment.
| Expense | What qualifies | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cleaning chemicals and consumables | Detergents, degreasers, oven and limescale products, bin bags, sponges, microfibre cloths | Fully deductible as used; buy in bulk and log it |
| Equipment and machines | Vacuums, steam cleaners, carpet and upholstery machines, pressure washers, mops and ladders | Capital items usually claimed in full via the Annual Investment Allowance |
| Van or vehicle costs | Mileage at 45p a mile (first 10,000) then 25p, or actual fuel, servicing, insurance and capital allowances | Choose mileage or actual costs per vehicle, not both |
| PPE and safety kit | Gloves, masks, goggles, knee pads, non-slip footwear bought for the job | Protective gear is allowable; ordinary clothing is not |
| Branded uniform | Polo shirts, tabards and overalls carrying your logo | A logo makes it a deductible uniform, not everyday clothes |
| Insurance | Public liability, employer's liability if you have staff, tools cover | Essential and fully deductible |
| Parking and tolls | Parking at job addresses, congestion and clean-air charges | Allowable on business journeys; not parking fines |
| Phone and admin | Business share of mobile, booking software, a portion of home-office costs | Apportion dual-use costs fairly |
| Advertising | Website, leaflets, Google and social ads, lead-generation and agent listing fees | Fully deductible |
| Accountancy and bank fees | Bookkeeping, Self Assessment, business banking | Fully deductible |
Travel between empty properties is a core cost, so get the method right. The simplified mileage method pays a flat 45p per business mile for the first 10,000 miles in the year and 25p after, covering fuel, insurance, servicing and wear in one figure with no receipts beyond a mileage log. The actual-cost method claims the business proportion of every running cost plus capital allowances on the vehicle. A cleaner using a cheap runaround usually wins on mileage; one running a dedicated, thirsty van full of machines often does better on actual costs. Keep a simple log of business miles either way, because you cannot reconstruct it later. Commuting from home to a fixed base is not allowable, but travel from home directly to varied client properties generally is.
A carpet extractor, an industrial steam cleaner or a commercial vacuum can cost several hundred pounds each. Rather than spreading the cost over years, the Annual Investment Allowance usually lets you deduct the full cost in the year you buy it, which can wipe out a chunk of profit in a year you invest in kit. Keep the invoices and note whether any item has private use to apportion fairly.
The private share of dual-use phone, broadband and vehicle costs must be excluded. Everyday clothing is never allowable even if you only wear it for work, the test is whether it is a logo'd uniform or PPE. Parking and speeding fines are not deductible. And meals while out on jobs are generally personal, not business.
Take a solo end of tenancy cleaner turning over GBP 34,000 across agent contracts and private bookings, driving a small van between flats.
Income: GBP 34,000 (letting-agent contracts GBP 21,000, private tenants and landlords GBP 13,000)
Allowable expenses:
Taxable profit: GBP 34,000 minus GBP 10,300 = GBP 23,700
Income Tax: GBP 23,700 minus GBP 12,570 = GBP 11,130 at 20% = GBP 2,226
Class 4 NIC: GBP 11,130 at 6% = GBP 668
Total tax and NIC: GBP 2,894 for the year, plus any Class 2 NIC due. Note how mileage and equipment do most of the heavy lifting on expenses. Run your own figures through the sole trader tax calculator, and if you also have a PAYE cleaning contract or rental income alongside, the multiple-income tax calculator shows how the streams stack.
For an end of tenancy cleaner, the cash you forget to record costs more than the chemicals you forget to claim. Log every job the day it is paid and the return writes itself.
You must register for VAT once taxable turnover exceeds GBP 90,000 in any rolling 12-month period. A solo cleaner rarely reaches this, but a firm that takes on staff and several agent contracts can climb past it fast, and crossing the line unnoticed triggers backdated VAT you may not have charged. If most of your work is for VAT-registered letting agents and property firms, they reclaim the VAT you charge, so registration is relatively painless and you reclaim VAT on machines, chemicals and the van. If you clean mainly for private tenants and small landlords who cannot reclaim, adding 20% either eats your margin or raises your price, so weigh voluntary registration carefully. Watch the rolling 12-month figure as you grow, not just the tax-year total.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment replaces the once-a-year return with quarterly digital submissions and a year-end finalisation. The thresholds are based on gross turnover, not profit:
Because the test is on gross income, a busy cleaner turning over GBP 35,000 on thin margins is still inside the April 2027 phase even if profit is modest. The shift suits this trade well: instead of reconstructing a year of scattered cash and agent payments each January, you record each job digitally as it is paid and send HMRC a quarterly summary. The continuous habit is exactly what stops cash jobs slipping through the cracks. Our guide to MTD for sole traders walks through what the quarterly rhythm looks like in practice.
Not declaring cash jobs. Cash is taxable income like any other. HMRC compares bank deposits and agent payments to your declared turnover, so under-recording cash is the fastest way to a check.
Mixing mileage and actual van costs. You must pick one method per vehicle and stick with it; claiming both is not allowed and invites questions.
Buying machines and forgetting the allowance. A carpet extractor or industrial steam cleaner is usually deductible in full the year you buy it through the Annual Investment Allowance, so do not leave it off.
Treating everyday clothes as uniform. Only logo'd uniform and genuine PPE are allowable; the plain joggers you clean in are not.
Assuming a PAYE allowance covers self-employed profit. If an employed cleaning contract already uses your personal allowance, every pound of self-employed profit is taxed from the basic rate up, so set money aside accordingly.
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