Expenses can be confusing, so the available tax deductions for carpenters may not be immediately obvious. But it’s not actually too complicated. As a self-employed carpenter, you’ll be required to deduct taxes from your income yourself. Unless it’s done by your contractor, you’ll do this via a tax return. 

How do tax deductions for carpenters work?

When you calculate your tax bill, HMRC will allow you to remove anything you spend wholly, exclusively and necessarily on your business. This basically means that any pure business expense that you make can be deducted from your overall earnings. You do this to reduce the amount of tax that you pay or rather, you only pay tax on your profits instead of your gross earnings. 

Expenses for carpenters

Still not sure what we mean? Here’s a quick list of expenses that you can remove as a self-employed carpenter: 

• Specialised clothing
• Equipment
• Subscription costs for trade publications
• Mileage
• Parking costs (if you’re on a job, not generally) 
• Toll costs
• Website costs
• Accounting fees

These are just a few examples, but you can actually expense anything within reason.

It’s really important to keep your spending and income organised and recorded. That way, you’ll be prepared when it comes to presenting evidence to HMRC. 

For more information about how expenses work, take a look at the HMRC website.