Printer, ink & consumables

Conditions

1. GOV.UK's self-employed expenses guidance lists stationery, printing, and printer ink and cartridges among the office costs you can claim as allowable expenses.
2. The printer itself is different. For equipment you keep to use in your business, for example computers or printers, GOV.UK says a sole trader claims allowable expenses if they use cash basis accounting, and capital allowances if they use traditional accounting. This entry covers the consumables, not the hardware.
3. A limited company deducts the costs of running its business before Corporation Tax. The test is statutory: section 34 ITTOIA 2005 for sole traders and section 54 CTA 2009 for companies allow no deduction for expenses not incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade, but do not prohibit a deduction for an identifiable part or identifiable proportion of an expense that is.
4. Where ink and paper are used for business and personal printing, GOV.UK says you cannot claim for any non-business use of office resources. HMRC distinguishes two cases. Where a definite part or proportion of the expense is wholly and exclusively for the trade, that part is not disallowed (BIM37600). Where an expense is incurred for a dual purpose, it fails the statutory test and there is no provision that allows a 'business' proportion (BIM37007).
5. An employee can deduct an expense only if they are obliged to incur and pay it as holder of the employment and it is incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of the duties of the employment (section 336 ITEPA 2003). HMRC adds that the expense must be one that each and every holder of that employment would have to incur (EIM31630), and that the test looks at the requirements of the job itself rather than the circumstances or preferences of any particular individual doing it (EIM31640).
6. For an employee's mixed-use costs, HMRC says a single expense can be apportioned if a definite part or proportion of it can properly be attributed wholly and exclusively to the performance of the duties, but you cannot apportion expenditure where it serves two or more purposes concurrently and one of those purposes is not to do with the duties (EIM31661).
7. GOV.UK says an employee cannot claim tax relief if the employer gives them all the money back, and that where the employer has paid some of the expenses, relief is only on the amount the employer has not paid.

Common mistakes

• Claiming the whole cost of ink and paper that is also used for personal printing. GOV.UK says you cannot claim for any non-business use of office resources.
• Claiming a business share of consumables bought for a mixed purpose. A dual-purpose expense with no definite business part gets no deduction (BIM37007).
• Treating the printer and its consumables as the same kind of cost. GOV.UK lists printer ink and cartridges with office costs, and puts printers with equipment you keep, which a sole trader claims as allowable expenses under cash basis or as capital allowances under traditional accounting.
• Employees claiming home printing because it suits them rather than because the job requires it. HMRC's test looks at the requirements of the job itself, not the preferences of the person doing it (EIM31640).
• Employees claiming for consumables the employer has already paid back in full.

What to keep

• Receipts or invoices for ink, toner cartridges and paper.
• Where the same consumables serve business and personal printing, a record of how the business part was identified.
• For an employee, a record of any amount the employer paid or reimbursed.

Real-world example

A sole trader runs a small design studio from home and uses traditional accounting. She buys toner cartridges and paper that she uses only for client proofs and invoices, and her family prints on a separate printer of their own. GOV.UK lists printer ink and cartridges and stationery among the office costs she can claim, and these are bought wholly for the business, so she claims them in full as allowable expenses. The studio printer is equipment she keeps, so under traditional accounting she claims it through capital allowances rather than as an expense; had she used cash basis, it would have been an allowable expense.

Frequently asked