Expenses claim but not working

pitza

Hi,

I am a sole trader and for the tax year 2025/26 I only earned £3000 as I had to take a long time off due to illness for which I claimed an amount of DWP eesa but ended up still way under the personal allowance. My question is should I still claim expenses eg. Vehicle service,tax MOT. Public liability insurance etc on my tax return even though I won't pay any tax for that year?

uknick

Yes. You first work out your trading profit/loss and then add this to any other taxable income for the year to work out your full tax liability. There is a sequence of offset you have to use. Any losses not utilised can be carried forward and set against future profits from the same trade.

If you don't claim them for the tax year in which you incurred them, you can't claim them in a later year.

Have a read of this

Trading losses | Low Incomes Tax Reform Group

pitza

Thanks for your help.