We know from experience that the best way for sole traders to save on tax is to claim all the allowable expenses they’re eligible for. But many sole traders aren’t claiming everything they’re entitled to – and that’s easy money left on the table!
Enter Hnry. Our service is built around sole traders and their pain points:
- Struggling with your expense admin? Boom, the Hnry Business Mastercard automates it.
- Constantly losing your receipts? We store them for you – for the HMRC-required five years after the 31 January submission deadline.
- Not sure which expenses you can claim? Check out our resources page.
- Need extra help? Our devastatingly charismatic Customer Service team is here to help!
Best of all, all this is included as part of Hnry’s 1% +VAT fee – no hidden fees, no surprises!
We know that tax is a dry subject. But trust us – this Hnry cheatsheet could literally pay off down the line.
Expenses made easy with Hnry
Like we said earlier, many sole traders aren’t claiming all the allowable expenses they’re entitled to. Not ideal!
We don’t want our customers to be amongst those who miss out. That’s why we’ve made it dead easy to raise expenses as you go – that way, you’re less likely to miss out on any potential tax savings.
Here’s how to make the most of your allowable expenses with Hnry:
1. The Hnry Business Mastercard
It’s so simple: Every time you make a business purchase using your Hnry Business Mastercard, it automatically raises that purchase as an expense in the Hnry App.
All you need to do is upload a photo of your receipt, add in a few details, and you’re done. Expense raised!
We even store that receipt for you for the HMRC-required five years. No more frantically trying to find your receipt stash come tax time – it’s all taken care of.
2. Hnry Expenses
If, for whatever reason, you can’t use the Hnry Business Mastercard, you can still manually raise expenses in the Hnry App – and it’ll still take you less than a minute from start to finish.
In the Hnry App, hit “Create new” under the Expense tab. From there, it’s the same process – upload a receipt, add a few details, hit submit. Easy!
James is a CIS Subcontractor who uses the Hnry Business Mastercard and Hnry Expenses to raise expenses as he goes.
The Hnry Business Mastercard is a huge time-save for when he’s making purchases on the go – everything he buys is automatically raised in the Hnry App, ready for him to submit.*
On the rare occasions he forgets to use his Hnry Business Mastercard, James’ made it a habit to raise expenses in the Hnry App ASAP, including uploading a photo of his receipt before he loses it.
Getting help with expenses
Knowing what you can and can’t claim is one of the top reasons sole traders say they aren’t claiming all their allowable expenses. And we totally get it – sometimes, it really is hard to know whether or not a claim is valid according to HMRC rules. That’s why we’re here to help.
Get in touch with the team
The Hnry Team is on hand to answer all your complicated tax questions. We’re specialists in sole trader taxes, and trust us when we say we really have heard it all before!
We manage your expenses for you
Once raised, we manage your expenses for you. This means passing on the tax savings in real time – but it also means we’ll let you know if any of the expenses you raise might not comply with HMRC’s rules.
Check out our resources
Our Resources page is a growing library of all things sole trader. As a starting point, we’ve put together two general guides to help you understand what you can and can’t claim:
Happy raising!
Four reasons to raise expenses as you go
We really do believe that raising expenses as you go is the best way to save on your tax bill.
But if you’re still not convinced, here are four reasons it’s a good idea:
1. More money in your pocket, sooner
Raising expenses in Hnry as you go means more money in your pocket, sooner. We’ll start deducting less tax from your very next payment, which you can save, invest, or spend as you like.
We get it, we all love a surprise refund at the end of the tax year. But for most sole traders, having cash on hand when you need it can make a real difference.
2. Better visibility of your real income
The income and expenses graph on the Hnry Dashboard is a snapshot of your monthly profit. But it goes without saying, it’s not going to be accurate if you’re not raising expenses in real time!
When your expenses are up to date and the right amount of tax is being deducted from your income, you get a much clearer picture of what you’re actually earning vs. what’s going to HMRC. It takes the guesswork out of your business’ finances.
3. Fewer missed expenses
Let’s be honest – it’s easy to forget about a purchase you made six months ago. Raising expenses as they happen reduces the risk of missing legitimate claims, and avoids the end-of-year scramble to find old receipts.
4. Easier to stay compliant
When you raise an expense in Hnry, you upload a photo of the receipt, creating a digital record of the purchase. That receipt is stored alongside the expense details in Hnry, helping you maintain the records required by HMRC – for both Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital. Simple as that.
Tax relief 101
Wait, so, with all that in mind – how do business expenses actually translate to tax relief? We’re so glad you asked!
You’ve probably (ok, definitely) heard the words “allowable expenses” and “tax relief” before. But what you might not know is that those two terms technically refer to different things:
- Generally, allowable expenses are any purchases you make in order to run your business.
- Tax relief is a broader term for ways you can reduce the amount of tax you owe. Think allowances, gift aid, private pension contributions.
📖 If you’re curious to learn more, we explain it all in detail in our guide to business expenses for sole traders.
Sole traders may be able to claim certain business expenses and receive tax relief, if they’re wholly and exclusively for their business. For example:
Janey is a self-employed florist, earning £40,000 annually in self-employed income. In order to do business, she regularly needs to repair, maintain, and occasionally upgrade her tools.
For tax year 2026/27, Janey spends £5,000 on new floristry equipment. She claims these costs as allowable expenses. This reduces the amount of income she owes tax on from £40,000 to £35,000.
At £40k, Janey’s effective income tax rate was 13.7%, and she would have had to pay HMRC £5,486 in income tax. By claiming allowable expenses of £5,000 and reducing her taxable income to £35,000, her effective tax rate becomes 12.8%, and her tax bill is £4,486.
That’s a tax saving of £1,000 just from claiming allowable expenses!
(Example excludes National Insurance contributions.)
💡 An effective tax rate is the percentage of your total income that you pay in taxes. For more information, check out our guide to tax rates.
📖 Confused about which business purchases might count as allowable expenses? Our guide to expenses is a great starting point!
How claiming expenses works using Hnry
Alright, so now you know how claiming expenses works in general. But how does Hnry handle it all?
Great question, because this is where the real magic happens – and it’s a major benefit of using the Hnry system.
Most people treat expenses as something they deal with at tax time. The typical approach goes something like this:
- Save up all receipts during the year (maybe losing a few in the process),
- Send everything to your accountant near the end of the tax year, and
- Hopefully see the benefit months later in the form of a tax refund.
But this approach means you’re generally overpaying tax throughout the year, essentially giving HMRC an interest-free loan. You could definitely be putting these savings to better use!
That’s why Hnry is built around raising expenses as you go. Every time you raise an eligible business expense in the Hnry App, we adjust your tax rate in our system accordingly, so you’re only ever paying what you actually owe.
The best bit is that we pass on these tax savings to you in real time. You get to keep more of your hard-earned cash to spend on your business straight away, instead of maybe getting a refund once the tax year’s over.
Think about it – more money in your pocket, sooner, so you can make it work harder for you. What’s not to love?
Claim expenses with Hnry
We may be biased, but we reckon the best way for sole traders to maximise their business expenses (cost-effectively!) is to use Hnry.
Hnry is an award-winning service that’s helping sole traders in every industry spend less time on financial admin, and more time doing what they love.
(Unless what they love is financial admin).
For just 1% +VAT of your self-employed income, capped at £600 +VAT a year, Hnry will calculate and pay all your taxes and whatnot for you, including:
- Income tax
- National Insurance contributions
- Student loan repayments (if applicable)
- Private pension contributions (optional)
- VAT (if applicable)
We file your Self Assessment and VAT returns whenever they’re due. And if you’re using Making Tax Digital, we’re not just your MTD-compliant software – we actually complete and submit your quarterly updates and final tax return for you. It’s all part of the service!
More importantly, we free up hundreds of hours for you to focus more on what you do best – your job. Hnry is on a mission to make being a sole trader simple, affordable, and accessible for anyone.
Get your tax ducks (and deductions) in a row by joining Hnry today!