What expenses can a self-employed builder claim?

A self-employed builder can claim materials, subcontractors, plant, skip and scaffold hire, waste fees, tools, van costs and protective gear. In 2026-27, every £100 claimed saves £26 in the basic rate band (outside Scotland).

Builders spend more on other people's labour and on hired kit than most trades, so getting these costs right matters. Each cost must be for your building business, and only the business share of anything personal counts. The ground rules for every trade are in our tradesperson expenses guide. What follows is specific to general builders, checked against GOV.UK and HMRC guidance on 16 October 2026.

Builder expenses: what usually counts

Under traditional accounting, plant, tools and vans you keep go through capital allowances instead. The cash basis is the standard way for sole traders, so most builders deduct the price in the year they pay. See can I claim tools as a business expense for how this works.

Paying subcontractors: CIS on the other side

Once you pay other trades to do construction work for you, you are a CIS contractor as well as a subcontractor. GOV.UK says you must register as a contractor before you take on your first subcontractor, check each one is registered, usually deduct from their payments and pass the money to HMRC, and file monthly returns. You must also check whether the person should really be your employee.

The subcontractor's cost to you is the full amount for their labour. Say you agree £10,000 for labour only with a registered bricklayer, so the 20% rate applies. You pay them £8,000 and send £2,000 to HMRC as their CIS deduction. Your expense is £10,000, because the £2,000 counts towards their tax bill, not yours. Do not also claim it as a separate cost. See am I a contractor or a subcontractor under CIS.

Hire, waste and the waste carrier fee

Hired plant, skips and scaffolding are everyday building costs and come off your profit when you pay them. If you take waste from jobs to the tip in your own van, you need to register as a waste carrier. In England, GOV.UK says registration is usually free if you only carry waste you produce yourself, but the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 leave construction and demolition waste, including waste from repairs and alterations, out of that free route. So a builder carrying their own job waste normally pays £191.02 to register, and an upper tier registration costs £130.25 to renew every 3 years. Whatever you pay is a business cost.

Food and travel: two court cases

HMRC's manual uses two building cases. In Caillebotte v Quinn, a subcontract carpenter could not claim his site lunches, even though the work made him hungrier: the judge said he ate to live, not because he was a carpenter. In Horton v Young, the court held that a bricklayer working on sites for about three weeks at a time could claim travel between home and those sites. HMRC now gives the jobbing builder as its example of an itinerant trader. Our guide to travel from home to site explains where the line falls.

What this means for you

Here is a simple 2026-27 example for a builder outside Scotland.

Income Tax at 20% on £21,430 (profit over the £12,570 Personal Allowance) is £4,286. Class 4 National Insurance at 6% is £1,285.80, so the total is £5,571.80. This is an example only.

Steps to claim your building expenses

1. Keep every merchant, hire and skip invoice, with the job it was for.
2. Register as a CIS contractor before you take on your first subcontractor, and keep each payment and deduction statement you issue.
3. Record the full labour cost for each subcontractor, not just the amount you paid them.
4. Keep personal purchases off the business account, or mark them as personal straight away.
5. Log business miles, or keep fuel and servicing bills, for each vehicle.
6. Keep your books up to date month by month, because once Making Tax Digital applies, HMRC expects a quarterly update from your records.

To see which April your Making Tax Digital start date falls in, use the free MTD check. The trades section explains CIS and MTD for builders in more detail.