HMRC is running a digital campaign to remind people to correctly separate business and personal expenses on their Self Assessment tax returns.

For an expense to count for tax purposes, it must be used only for your business. If something is used partly for business and partly for personal reasons, you should only claim the business part. How you split the cost will depend on your situation for that tax year.

In a 2024 trial with 600,000 people, HMRC found that many weren’t adjusting correctly for private use, meaning personal expenses were being claimed as business costs. As a result, HMRC plans to carry out more checks on how private use is being reported in expense claims.