What expenses can a reseller claim?

The one rule behind all of it

HMRC only lets you take a cost off your profit if it was spent wholly and exclusively for the business. That's the actual test in the law, and every list of allowable expenses is just that rule applied. If you'd have spent the money anyway, it doesn't count. If you spent it purely to buy, list, sell or send stock, it usually does.

Expenses or the trading allowance

Every year you choose: take your actual expenses off your sales, or take a flat £1,000 off instead. Not both. For resellers, expenses nearly always win, because the stock alone usually costs more than £1,000. You can only make that choice if you've kept the numbers.

What resellers usually claim

Stock

What you paid for the things you sell. HMRC lists "things you buy to sell on" first. Car boot hauls, charity shop finds and bulk lots all count, which is why it matters to write down what each one cost when you buy it.

Postage, packaging and selling fees

Postage to buyers, mailing bags, tape, labels, and the fees eBay, Vinted or a payment provider take from a sale. HMRC's summary list doesn't name these one by one, but they're costs you only have because you're selling, which is exactly the wholly and exclusively test. Its list does name financial costs like bank charges, and advertising such as website costs. If you're unsure about something specific, ask an accountant.

Travel and mileage

Fuel, parking, and train or bus fares for business trips: driving to a car boot to buy stock, or to the post office with parcels. Rather than working out a share of your actual car costs, you can claim a flat rate per business mile:

• Cars and vans: 55p a mile for the first 10,000 miles in the tax year, 25p after that.
• Motorcycles: 24p a mile.

The 55p rate applies from 6 April 2026. It was 45p before that, so use 45p for miles in the 2025 to 2026 tax year. Once you use the flat rate for a vehicle, you have to stick with it for as long as you use that vehicle for the business. Keep a log of the date, where you went and how far.

Your phone and internet

Only the business share. HMRC's own example: a £200 phone bill with £70 of business calls means you claim £70. Work out a fair split and note how you did it.

Working from home

If you list, pack and photograph at home, you can claim a flat monthly amount instead of splitting your household bills:

• 25 to 50 hours of business use a month: £10.
• 51 to 100 hours: £18.
• 101 hours or more: £26.

The flat rate doesn't cover your phone or internet, so claim their business share separately.

Equipment

A label printer, a camera, shelving for stock. Most sole traders now use the cash basis, the standard way to do the accounts, which records money when it actually goes in and out. Under it, equipment you keep for the business is claimed as an ordinary expense. Cars are the exception and go through capital allowances.

What you can't claim

• Everyday clothing, even if you only wear it for work. Protective clothing and real uniforms are fine.
• Non-business driving, and travel between home and work.
• Fines or penalty charges, like a parking ticket outside the post office.
• The personal share of anything you also use outside the business.

Keep the evidence

Receipts, invoices, platform statements and your mileage log: keep them for at least 5 years after the 31 January filing deadline for that year. When it's time to file, the tax return walkthrough shows where the total goes.

Where STC fits in

STC records the cost, the fees and the postage against each item as you go, so the per-sale costs are never a guess. Everything else, like packaging, mileage, your phone share or a label printer, goes on the Expenses screen with a category and date, and it all adds up on the Tax screen by tax year.