Office supplies & stationery

Conditions

1. GOV.UK's self-employed expenses guidance lists stationery, postage, printing, and printer ink and cartridges among the office costs you can claim.
2. The cost must be incurred for the business. For both sole traders and companies the test is statutory: S34 ITTOIA 2005 for unincorporated businesses and S54 CTA 2009 for companies prevent a deduction unless the expenditure is incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade (BIM37007).
3. GOV.UK draws the consumable line by how long you will use the item: a self-employed person can claim items they would normally use for less than 2 years as allowable expenses, and GOV.UK's example of such an item is stationery.
4. Equipment you keep to use in the business, such as computers or printers, is claimed as allowable expenses under cash basis accounting, or as capital allowances under traditional accounting — not as office supplies.
5. Mixed-use purchases are split, not lost. GOV.UK states you cannot claim for any non-business use of premises, phones or other office resources, and that where you use something for both business and personal reasons you can only claim allowable expenses for the business costs. HMRC distinguishes the two cases: a definite part or proportion of an expense laid out wholly and exclusively for the trade should not be disallowed, while an expense incurred for a dual purpose should be disallowed (BIM37007).
6. Claiming the £1,000 tax-free trading allowance rules out claiming expenses. GOV.UK states you cannot claim expenses if you use your £1,000 trading allowance, and that the allowances are used instead of deducting any expenses or other allowances. The trading allowance does not apply to trading income from a partnership.
7. An employee buying supplies with their own money is on section 336 ITEPA 2003, which HMRC calls very restrictive: all of its tests must be passed, among them that the expense is one each and every holder of that employment would have to incur, and that it is necessarily incurred (EIM31630, EIM31645). GOV.UK's employee guidance names no route for office supplies or stationery among the things an employee can claim for.
8. Separately, section 316 ITEPA 2003 exempts stationery and normal office or workshop materials and supplies that an employer provides, where the employee uses them in performing the duties of the employment and any private use is not significant (EIM21610, EIM21611).
9. ITEPA 2003 adds a second route where the employee buys the supplies: for payments or reimbursements made on or after 6 April 2026, section 316ZA extends a parallel exemption to supplies the employee buys on the employer's behalf and the employer pays for or reimburses. HMRC states the exemption is available only if Condition A is met, and Condition B must also be met if the provision is otherwise than on premises occupied by the employer (EIM21619).
10. Condition A of that exemption is the employer's intention, tested when the accommodation, supplies or services are first provided: that they will be used by the employee in performing the duties of the employment, and that any use for the employee's private purposes, or the private purposes of members of the employee's family or household, will not be significant (EIM21619, EIM21613).
11. Condition B applies only where the accommodation, supplies or services are provided other than on premises occupied by the employer. In those cases the exemption does not apply unless the sole purpose of the provision is to enable the employee to perform the duties of the employment (EIM21614), and what is provided is not an excluded benefit — any motor vehicle, boats including yachts, aircraft including helicopters, or the extension, conversion or alteration of any living accommodation (EIM21612).

Common mistakes

• Mixing personal stationery purchases into business claims.
• Treating a durable item as a consumable. GOV.UK's allowable-expense example is an item you would normally use for less than 2 years; equipment you keep to use in the business goes down the cash basis or capital allowances route instead.
• Claiming the £1,000 trading allowance and your expenses in the same year. GOV.UK states the allowances are used instead of deducting any expenses or other allowances.
• Assuming an employee can claim stationery as readily as a sole trader. HMRC describes the general rule for employees' expenses as very restrictive, and says all of the tests imposed by section 336 ITEPA 2003 must be passed before a deduction is obtained (EIM31630).
• Treating an employer's reimbursement of supplies as automatically tax-free for earlier years. HMRC states that where an employee contracts for supplies and the employer reimburses the cost, the section 316 ITEPA 2003 exemption does not apply, and that such a reimbursement is taxable (EIM21613).

What to keep

• Receipts for purchases.
• A note of which items were used privately where a purchase covers both business and private use, so the business proportion is supportable.
• For an employee claim, evidence of what you have spent, such as copies of receipts — GOV.UK asks for this when you claim.
• For supplies an employer provides or reimburses, the employer's stated policy on private use. HMRC accepts the not significant test is met where the employer's policy about private use is clearly stated to the employees, and any decision not to recover the costs of private use is a commercial decision (EIM21613).

Real-world example

A freelance designer buys printer paper, ink cartridges and postage for sending client documents. All of it is used in the business, so the full cost is an allowable expense for the year: GOV.UK lists stationery, postage, printing, and printer ink and cartridges among the office costs you can claim, and these are items you would normally use for less than 2 years rather than equipment kept for use in the business. The designer also buys a bulk pack of envelopes and uses roughly a quarter of them for personal post. That cost is divisible, so the business share is claimed and the private share is not — HMRC's rule is that a definite part or proportion of an expense laid out wholly and exclusively for the trade should not be disallowed, while an expense incurred for a dual purpose should be disallowed (BIM37007). Had the designer instead used the £1,000 trading allowance for that year, neither amount could have been claimed, because GOV.UK states the allowances are used instead of deducting any expenses or other allowances.

Frequently asked

Related allowances