Camera & photography equipment

Conditions

1. A camera or photography kit kept for use in the trade is plant and machinery. The capital allowances legislation does not define plant: CA21010 states that, according to case law, plant is apparatus used for carrying on the business (a 'tool of the trade'), is not stock in trade, and is kept for permanent employment in the business.
2. Camera kit qualifies for the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA), which lets you deduct the full value of the item from your profits before tax. The AIA amount is £1 million, and you get a new allowance for each accounting period. A 40% first-year allowance is available for expenditure incurred on or after 1 January 2026 on plant or machinery that was bought new and unused, qualifies for the main rate of writing-down allowance and is not a car; second-hand assets are excluded, and there is a specific exclusion for overseas leasing. The relief is available to all businesses, not just incorporated ones. In the next accounting period you claim writing-down allowances on the remaining 60% of the cost.
3. The main rate of writing-down allowance changed from 18% to 14% on 1 April 2026 for Corporation Tax and 6 April 2026 for Income Tax. If your accounting period includes the day the rate changed, you must work out a hybrid rate for that period.
4. Under the cash basis — the default method of accounting for sole traders and partnerships without corporate partners from 6 April 2024 — cameras and photography equipment are claimed directly as an allowable expense in the year you pay for them, rather than through capital allowances. Cash basis users can only claim capital allowances on business cars.
5. Dual use is the central issue for cameras. If you are a sole trader or in a partnership you cannot claim the full value of an item you also use outside the business: reduce the capital allowances you claim by the amount you use the asset outside the business, and keep a record showing how that proportion was assessed. Where equipment is kept in a dedicated studio or used exclusively for client work, the full cost is normally allowable.
6. For a limited company, a camera purchased by the company for business use is a company asset and the cost is relieved through capital allowances. Office equipment provided only for business use is exempt from reporting, but an asset made available for a director's or employee's private use as well must be reported on form P11D, with Class 1A National Insurance due on the value of the benefit. The asset's annual value for that purpose is 20% of its market value when it was first provided as a benefit, plus anything else spent on it during the year.
7. Employees — such as a staff photographer, journalist or videographer — may be able to claim capital allowances on a camera or kit, but the test is a demanding one. GOV.UK's guidance for employees allows a claim only where you need the equipment to do your job, and no claim at all where the employer gives you all the money back or offers an alternative. HMRC's manual puts the statutory test as 'necessarily provided' for use in the performance of the duties: it will not have been necessarily provided by the employee if the employer is willing to provide or pay for it (EIM36540).
8. On private use, the two HMRC sources state the position as follows. GOV.UK's employee guidance: you can only claim tax relief for equipment expenses where you use the equipment for work and there's no significant private use. HMRC's Employment Income Manual: the plant or machinery does not have to be 'wholly and exclusively' used for the performance of the duties, and if there is private use the allowances can be apportioned (EIM36540); apportionment is made on a 'just and reasonable' basis having regard to all the circumstances, principally the actual use made of the item in the year of assessment (EIM36570).
9. Consumable items used with the equipment — memory cards replaced regularly, batteries, cleaning supplies — are revenue running costs rather than capital items. Where a tangible asset has an economic life of less than one year, HMRC accepts that expenditure on it is of a revenue nature (BIM35415).

Common mistakes

• Claiming 100% of the cost of a camera that is also used for personal photography — the claim must be reduced by the extent of use outside the business.
• Claiming the AIA on a camera you already owned personally before you started using it in the business. You cannot claim AIA on items you owned for another reason beforehand — claim writing-down allowances instead, based on the market value of the item when you brought it into the business.
• Under traditional accounting, treating a significant camera purchase as a day-to-day expense rather than claiming through capital allowances.
• An employee claiming relief where the employer has provided a camera, offered an alternative, or is willing to pay for one.

What to keep

• Purchase invoices or receipts for cameras, lenses, lighting, and accessories showing the item and cost.
• A note of the business-use proportion and the method used to assess it, particularly where the equipment is also used privately.
• Where kit you already owned is brought into the business, a record of its market value at that point.

Real-world example

A freelance photographer buys a camera body (£2,400) and two lenses (£1,800 combined) for client portrait and event work, used entirely for business. Under the Annual Investment Allowance, she claims the full £4,200 in the year of purchase. She also buys spare memory cards during the year — these are treated as revenue running costs rather than capital items.

Frequently asked

Related allowances