Other operating expenses: what you can claim

Every tracker needs a sundries drawer, and this is it — genuine business costs that don't fit a more specific category. The trick is to use it sparingly: your quarterly totals are compared across businesses, and a huge catch-all number is the kind of thing that attracts attention.

What you can claim

• Trade and professional subscriptions — membership you need for your work, from a federation membership to a professional body.
• Refresher training — courses that update skills you already use, like a first aid renewal.
• Work clothing — uniforms with your logo, hi-vis, steel toe caps, overalls.
• Laundering of workwear — cleaning protective and branded clothing.
• Small tools — hand tools, drill bits and trowels that wear out or get lost.
• Postage and couriers — business post and parcels.
• Stationery and printing — invoices, notebooks, branded paper.
• Staff refreshments — tea, coffee and milk for the team.

What you can't claim

• Client entertaining — never deductible, wherever you record it.
• Everyday clothing — a business suit is still personal clothing.
• Gym membership and personal wellness — however useful work feels afterwards.
• Training for a completely new trade — the floristry course while you're a plasterer is not claimable.
• Fines and penalties — of any kind, ever.

Common mistakes

The dumping-ground problem is real. When "other" is your biggest category, either the specific categories are being ignored or personal costs are creeping in. The rule is simple: if a cost has an obvious home — mileage, software, phone — it goes there, and this category stays small and honest.

Personal costs in disguise are the second issue. Work-adjacent spending like ordinary clothes, wellness apps or a "business" streaming subscription is not claimable, and a note saying "business use" doesn't make it so.

Training confuses everyone. The dividing line is updating versus retraining: keeping your current skills current is deductible; learning a whole new trade is not, even if you intend to add it to the business later.

How to record it in your MTD tracker

Select Other operating expenses only when nothing else fits, and always write a note describing what the item actually was. A tidy "other" category with clear notes is far more convincing at year end than a big number with no explanation.