Paint, scaffolding, van — tracked in one app
Pick up paint and consumables daily. Hire scaffolding for big jobs. Run the van between sites. All in one place.
Daily merchant runs, big paint bills, scaffolding hire — easy to lose
A typical UK painter and decorator visits Brewers, Dulux, Crown or Screwfix daily for paint and consumables, hires scaffolding or platforms for upper-floor work, runs the van between jobs, and pays for trade-body subs and insurance. Receipts collect in the van and pockets — and many disappear before tax time.
What PocketReceipt tracks for decorators
Paint & consumables
Brewers, Dulux, Crown, Johnstone's, Screwfix. Vendor recognised, tagged as materials.
Scaffolding & access
Tower hire, scaffolding licence, ladders. Tagged as plant hire, fully allowable.
Brushes, dust sheets, sundries
Brushes, rollers, masking tape, dust sheets, sandpaper. Small but adds up — captured automatically.
Van expenses
Diesel, insurance, MOT, servicing. Choose simplified mileage or actual costs.
Mileage to jobs
GPS or manual trip log between sites. HMRC 55p/25p auto-applied.
Insurance & trade subs
Public liability, employer's liability if you have a labourer, PDA / Painting and Decorating Association membership. Tagged correctly.
A typical decorator's day, tracked
- 7:30am — fill the van at the petrol station, scan receipt
- 8:30am — pick up 5L of trade emulsion at Brewers, scan invoice
- 11:00am — drive to second job across town, mileage auto-logged
- 1:00pm — quick run to Screwfix for masking tape and brushes, scan receipt
- 4:00pm — collect scaffolding tower from hire firm, receipt scanned
- Sunday — export weekly summary to your accountant
Allowable expenses for self-employed decorators
HMRC lets you deduct any cost that is wholly and exclusively for your painting and decorating business. The table below maps a typical sole-trader decorator's spend — interior repaints, full redecorations, wallpapering, sash-window restoration, exterior masonry — to the boxes on SA103F. Paint and consumables are the single biggest line for most decorators; tools and a van are the next.
| Expense | Claim? | SA103F box | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paint, primer, undercoat, varnish, wood treatment, masonry paint | Yes | Box 17 — Cost of goods bought for resale or goods used | Merchant receipts from Brewers, Crown, Dulux Decorator Centre, Johnstone's, F&B trade. If you supply-and-fit, split labour and materials on the customer invoice. |
| Fillers, sandpaper, caulk, sealant, wallpaper, paste, masking tape | Yes | Box 17 | Consumables used up on jobs. |
| Dust sheets, plastic sheeting, sugar soap, white spirit, brush cleaner | Yes | Box 17 | Job-prep consumables. |
| Scaffold tower hire or scaffold rental | Yes | Box 17 | Hired in for a specific job — direct cost. Owned scaffold or towers go through capital allowances instead. |
| Airless sprayer (Graco, Wagner), Mirka dustless sander, hot-air gun, steam stripper | Yes | Box 49 — Annual Investment Allowance / cash basis expense | Under cash basis (default since 6 April 2024) include with other expenses. Under traditional accounting claim AIA, up to £1,000,000 a year. |
| Step ladders, extension poles, work platforms (purchase, not hire) | Yes | Box 49 / cash basis expense | Capital items — replaced every few years. |
| Hand tools — scrapers, filler knives, snap-off blades, sash brushes, rollers, sprayer tips | Yes | Box 22 — Repairs and maintenance of property and equipment | Replacement small kit that wears out regularly. |
| Van — actual running costs (fuel, MOT, servicing, repairs, VED) | Yes | Box 20 — Car, van and travel expenses | Only if you are not using simplified mileage on the same van. Apportion any personal use. |
| Van — simplified mileage rate | Yes | Box 20 | 55p first 10,000 business miles, 25p after. Cannot be combined with capital allowances or actual costs on the same van. |
| Van — purchase / AIA (newly bought commercial van) | Yes | Box 49 — AIA / cash basis expense | Vans qualify for full AIA. A new £20,000 Berlingo or Combo is fully deductible in year one. Cars do not qualify. |
| Tool insurance (in-van overnight cover) | Yes | Box 21 — Rent, rates, power and insurance costs | Decorators' vans full of paint, sprayers and ladders are a known theft target. |
| Public liability + professional indemnity insurance | Yes | Box 21 | Annual premium in full. Essential for any work in customer homes — paint spills and ladder accidents. |
| PDA (Painting & Decorating Association) membership, CSCS card renewal | Yes | Box 30 — Other business expenses | Trade body subscription and site-card renewal. Listed by HMRC as an example of allowable trade subscriptions. |
| CPD — Mirka dustless sanding system, wallpapering masterclass, lead-paint awareness, spray training | Yes | Box 30 | Refresher training in your existing trade is allowable. Courses to retrain into a new trade are not. |
| PPE — overalls, FFP3 dust masks (for lead paint and silica), goggles, knee pads, gloves, hi-vis | Yes | Box 30 | Protective and specialist clothing only. Pre-1992 properties may contain lead paint — FFP3 masks are a real safety cost on those jobs. |
| Mobile phone bill — business proportion | Partly | Box 23 — Phone, fax, stationery and other office costs | Estimate honestly. 60–80% is typical for a decorator running quotes and callouts through the phone. |
| Quoting / invoicing app, accounting software | Yes | Box 23 | Monthly subscriptions allowable in full. |
| Stationery — business cards, invoice book, printer ink, A4 paper | Yes | Box 23 | Day-to-day office consumables. |
| Advertising — Google Ads, Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Rated People, leaflets, branded website | Yes | Box 24 — Advertising and business entertainment costs | Client gifts and entertainment are not allowable. |
| Card terminal fees (SumUp, Zettle, Square) | Yes | Box 26 — Bank, credit card and other financial charges | Easy to miss — fees are netted off before money reaches your bank. |
| Accountant or bookkeeper fee | Yes | Box 28 — Accountancy, legal and other professional fees | Including the cost of preparing your Self Assessment. |
| Working from home flat rate (quoting, ordering paint, admin, scheduling) | Yes | Box 21 | £10 / £18 / £26 a month for 25–50 / 51–100 / 101+ hours business use. |
| Subcontractor labour (apprentice, mate's-rate help) | Yes | Box 18 — Construction industry | If you take on subcontracted labour you must register as a CIS contractor and file monthly CIS returns. |
| CIS deductions taken from your payments (when working on commercial new-build for a main contractor) | Tax credit (not expense) | Box 81 — Total CIS deductions taken from your payments by contractors | Set against your final tax bill; any excess is refunded. |
| Lunch and food on the working day | No | — | Subsistence is only allowable on overnight trips away from your normal area. |
| Plain trousers, T-shirts, ordinary trainers (even covered in paint) | No | — | HMRC: "you cannot claim for everyday clothing (even if you wear it for work)." Branded overalls and PPE are different. |
| Speeding fines, parking penalties | No | — | Fines are never allowable. |
Box numbers from HMRC SA103F Notes 2026. SA103S (turnover under £90,000) maps to the same expense categories on boxes 11–19, with Box 23 for AIA and Box 38 for CIS deductions.
Mike, a Sheffield decorator earning £48,000
The setup
Mike is 44, runs his painting & decorating business as a sole trader in Sheffield. His work is 70% interior residential (full redecorations, wallpapering, kitchens, bathrooms) and 30% smaller commercial — pubs, shops, dental practices — invoiced direct, not through a main contractor. Because his customers are private homeowners and small businesses paying him direct, there's no CIS deduction at source. Gross turnover for 2025–26 is £48,000. He drives a 5-year-old Citroën Berlingo van, 13,000 business miles a year, on actual-cost method (the van was bought through AIA three years ago).
What he claims at year end
Tracked through PocketReceipt across the year:
The maths
Gross turnover £48,000 minus £16,515 of expenses leaves a taxable profit of £31,485. After the £12,570 personal allowance, £18,915 falls in the basic-rate band. Income Tax at 20% is £3,783. Class 4 NICs at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 add £1,135. Total tax due: £4,918.
What it would have cost without the records
If Mike had only claimed the obvious — paint, van costs and the sprayer, around £12,000 — his taxable profit would be £36,000. Income Tax would be £4,686 and Class 4 NICs £1,406, total £6,092. The records save him £1,174 a year, and the bigger jobs (where scaffolding hire and FFP3 PPE matter) push the gap wider.
Common tax mistakes UK decorators make
- Mixing simplified mileage and actual van costs on the same vanPick one method per vehicle and stick with it for that vehicle's life with the business. Claiming 55p/25p AND fuel receipts is double-counting and HMRC will reverse it.
- Treating an airless sprayer or new van as "repairs"A £1,200 Graco sprayer, a £580 Mirka Deros sander or a new Berlingo van is a capital purchase, not a repair. Under cash basis (default since 6 April 2024) include the cost with other expenses; under traditional accounting it goes through Annual Investment Allowance — fully deductible in year one for almost any decorator.
- Forgetting tool insurance is a separate allowable expenseDecorators' vans full of paint, sprayers and ladders are a real overnight theft target. Tool-specific insurance (covering kit left in the van) is a legitimate business expense in Box 21. Standard van insurance often excludes tools — read your policy.
- Plain clothes claimed as "work clothing"HMRC's rule is explicit: everyday clothing is never allowable, even if you only wear it for work AND even if it's covered in paint. Branded overalls, hi-vis, knee pads, FFP3 masks, safety boots — yes. Plain joggers and old t-shirts — no.
- Claiming retraining for a new trade as CPDSpray-painting techniques, Mirka dustless sanding, wallpapering masterclass, lead-paint awareness, F-Gas-equivalent VOC training, paperhanging — all allowable because they update your existing decorating skills. A course in plastering or tiling from scratch is not allowable as it's training in a new trade.
- Daily lunch and coffee claimed as subsistenceSubsistence is only allowable on overnight trips away from your normal working area. A daily meal deal between jobs is not a business expense.
- Forgetting scaffold-tower hire as a direct costScaffolding and tower hire for a specific job is a direct cost (Box 17). If you forget the hire-company receipts you miss real expense relief. Owned scaffolding or towers are different — they go through capital allowances.
- Missing card-terminal feesSumUp, Zettle and Square typically deduct 1.5–1.7% before money reaches your bank. Across £14,000 of card takings that's £210–£240 a year of pure expense relief, easy to miss because you never see the fee leave your account separately.
- Confusion over the VAT Domestic Reverse Charge on commercial workIf you do commercial work AND you're VAT-registered AND your customer is VAT-registered AND the job falls within the Construction Industry Scheme, the reverse charge applies. For direct domestic customers and non-VAT-registered customers, the reverse charge does not apply and you charge VAT as normal.
- Skipping FFP3 masks on pre-1992 propertiesOlder properties may contain lead paint and silica dust. FFP3 dust masks are both a safety requirement and a real allowable expense (Box 30) — claim them.
- Missing the 5 October registration deadlineIf you went self-employed in the 2025–26 tax year you must register for Self Assessment by 5 October 2026. HMRC can charge a "failure to notify" penalty calculated as a percentage of the tax due.
Year-end tax tips for decorators
- Time big tool and van purchases before 5 AprilA new airless sprayer, Mirka sander, hot-air gun or replacement van bought before 5 April pulls the deduction into the current tax year. Under cash basis (default since April 2024) include with other expenses; under traditional accounting they go through Annual Investment Allowance, up to £1,000,000 a year. Vans qualify for AIA in full; cars do not.
- Decide simplified vs actual on the van — onceFor a fully depreciated van running 13,000+ business miles in a fuel-efficient diesel: simplified mileage might match or beat actual costs. For a brand-new £20k Berlingo or Combo in its first year: actual costs plus AIA blows simplified out of the water. Pick the right method on the right year — you cannot switch on the same vehicle later.
- Renew PDA, CSCS and CPD before 5 AprilPDA membership, CSCS card renewal, Mirka or Graco training, lead-paint awareness — pay the fees before 5 April so the deduction lands in the current tax year (under cash basis).
- Reconcile card-terminal totals against your bankPull the annual statement from SumUp / Zettle / Square. Gross takings go into turnover; processing fees go into Box 26.
- Check your Class 4 NIC band crossingFor 2025–26 Class 4 NICs are 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above. Most self-employed decorators sit in the 6% band; a small extra purchase before year-end can shift profit out of the band if you're close to £50,270.
- Get ready for MTD ITSAFrom 6 April 2026, sole traders with combined self-employment + property income over £50,000 must file quarterly cumulative updates. The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027 — which catches most full-time decorators. First quarterly update for 2026–27 is due 7 August 2026, then 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, plus a Final Declaration on 31 January 2028.
- Watch the £90,000 VAT threshold rolling 12-month totalSuccessful sole-trader decorators with a few big jobs can drift past £90,000. Check the rolling 12-month turnover each month, not just the tax year — late VAT registration brings penalties and back-VAT on sales you didn't add VAT to.
FAQ for decorators
Can I claim scaffolding and tower hire?
Yes — plant hire is 100% allowable. Keep the hire invoice. If you buy your own tower, items over £1,000 are usually capital allowances — PocketReceipt flags those.
Are paint and materials deductible?
Yes — fully allowable as direct cost of the job. Tag receipts to the customer or job for accurate billing if you do fixed quotes.
Should I be VAT-registered?
Only if turnover exceeds £90,000. Many decorators register voluntarily for the input VAT recovery on big paint orders. Check our VAT calculator first — Limited Cost Trader rules can wipe out FRS benefit.
Can I claim my workwear?
Branded overalls, hi-vis, PPE (FFP3 masks, gloves, knee pads, safety boots): yes. Plain trousers and t-shirts: no, even when covered in paint — HMRC's clothing rule excludes everyday clothing.
When is my tax due?
Self Assessment for the 2025–26 tax year is due online by 31 January 2027. If your tax bill is more than £1,000 you also pay 50% as a first payment on account that day, and another 50% on 31 July 2027. From 6 April 2026, decorators with combined self-employment + property income over £50,000 also file quarterly MTD ITSA updates; the threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027.
Materials bought for a specific client job — when do I claim?
Under cash basis (default), the moment you pay for them. If the client reimburses you separately, declare that as income — don't net it off. Materials go in Box 17 (cost of goods); the reimbursement goes into your turnover.
Trade discount — do I declare the discounted price or the list price?
Always the price you actually paid. Trade discount is just a lower price for the trade, not income. If a supplier gives you a separate cashback or rebate after the fact, that's typically other income — declare it.
Are skip and waste disposal fees deductible?
Yes — disposal, skip hire and tip fees for paint, wallpaper, plaster and packaging are normal business costs. Box 17 or Box 20 on SA103S. Lead paint and certain solvents need a licensed disposal route — keep the certificate.
Brushes, rollers, spray equipment — expense or capital?
Day-to-day consumables (rollers, brushes, masking tape, dust sheets) are a straight expense — Box 17. Larger kit like a quality airless sprayer, scaffold tower or extension ladder is claimed in full in year one under cash basis, or via Annual Investment Allowance under traditional accounting.
HMRC and PocketReceipt references used on this page
- HMRC, Expenses if you're self-employed — overview
- HMRC, Clothing expenses
- HMRC, Simplified expenses — vehicles (55p / 25p / 24p flat rates)
- HMRC, Simplified expenses — working from home
- HMRC, Annual Investment Allowance
- HMRC, Cash basis accounting (default since April 2024)
- HMRC, Self-employed National Insurance rates
- HMRC, Self Assessment deadlines
- HMRC, Construction Industry Scheme overview
- HMRC, VAT domestic reverse charge for building and construction services
- HMRC, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
- HMRC, SA103F Notes 2026 — Self-employment (full) (PDF)
- PocketReceipt, Mileage calculator · VAT threshold calculator · CIS deduction calculator
- PocketReceipt, Sole-trader allowable expenses — full guide · Simplified vs actual costs · MTD ITSA quarterly checklist
- PocketReceipt, Best receipt scanner apps for UK sole traders (2026 comparison)
Worked example figures are illustrative. Tax rates use 2025–26 thresholds: personal allowance £12,570; basic-rate Income Tax 20%; Class 4 NICs 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, 2% above. PocketReceipt is a record-keeping app, not a tax adviser — speak to an accountant for advice on your situation.