Business expenses explained for beginners

What counts as a business expense?

For tax purposes, the treatment depends on your business structure, the type of cost and why it was incurred. The safest habit is to record the cost, keep the evidence and categorise it rather than guessing at year end.

Keep the evidence

Save invoices and receipts, record the date, supplier, amount and business purpose, and reconcile transactions against your bank or card account.

Watch mixed-use costs

Some costs are partly personal and partly business. The rules for claiming them vary, so flag them for review instead of automatically treating the whole amount as deductible.