Every claim,
with its evidence.

What gets missed, and why

Nobody loses expense claims through carelessness about big things. They lose them through small recurring costs that never got recorded: card fees, a subscription on a personal card, parking, the trip to the merchant.

Individually trivial, collectively material — and all of them invisible unless something captures them at the moment they happen.

Mileage, done properly

For a personal car used for work, the approved mileage rate has long been 45p per business mile for the first 10,000 miles in a tax year and 25p per mile after that. It covers fuel, servicing, insurance and depreciation in one figure, which is why it usually beats claiming actual costs.

The requirement is a record: date, journey, purpose and distance. Logged against the job as you go, that record exists; reconstructed in January from a diary, it is a guess with your name on it.

Rates are set by HMRC and do change — check the current figures on gov.uk before you file.

Simplified expenses and where they help

• —Flat-rate mileage instead of actual vehicle costs, chosen per vehicle and fixed for as long as you have it.
• —A flat monthly rate for working from home based on hours worked there, instead of apportioning bills.
• —An adjustment for premises you both live in and trade from.
• —The trading allowance, which can be worth more than claiming expenses at all if your costs are under £1,000.