12 expenses your limited company could be paying for instead of you

Running a limited company comes with plenty of costs. But there may also be things you’re currently paying for personally that your company could be picking up instead. Not dodgy tax loopholes or creative accounting, but legitimate limited company expenses, tax-free benefits and director perks that HMRC allows, as long as you follow the rules. Here are 12 things worth checking before the next time you reach for your bank card.

1. A £50 treat

Flowers. A meal out. A bottle of something nice. A gift card for your favourite shop.

These can potentially be paid for by your limited company under the trivial benefits rules.

A qualifying trivial benefit must:

• cost £50 or less
• not be cash or exchangeable for cash
• not be a reward for your work or performance
• not be something you’re contractually entitled to

If you are a director of a close company, as many small limited company owners are, there is an overall cap of £300 of qualifying trivial benefits per tax year.

So you could potentially have six separate £50 treats over the year.

Don’t buy yourself one £300 gift and try to call it six trivial benefits, as this does not qualify and will be taxed as a benefit in kind. Each voucher has to be stand alone.

What could this actually pay for? Up to £300 a year of qualifying treats for a close-company director.

Good to know: HMRC confirms that qualifying trivial benefits costing £50 or less don’t need to be reported and don’t attract tax or National Insurance. Directors of close companies have a £300 annual cap.

2. Your mobile phone

If you’re paying your phone bill personally but spend half your life using it for work, check how your contract is set up.

Your company can provide you with one mobile phone or SIM card, including reasonable private use, without it normally creating a taxable benefit.

There is one important catch: the contract needs to be between the company and the phone provider. Putting your personal phone bill through the business is not the same thing.

So when your current contract comes up for renewal, it may be worth putting the next one directly into your company’s name.

What could this actually pay for? If your contract is £40 a month, that’s £480 a year you are no longer paying personally.

Good to know: HMRC says one employer-provided mobile phone or SIM can be exempt from tax and National Insurance where the contract is between the employer and supplier.

3. Your children

Yes, really.

You can employ your children through your limited company. But there is a very large ‘provided that’ attached to this. They need to do genuine work for the business and the amount they are paid needs to be reasonable for the work they actually do. Depending on their age and your business, that might mean appropriate admin, filing, packing orders, stock work or other genuine tasks.

There are also specific child-employment laws governing what children can do and how many hours they can work. Children under 16 don’t pay National Insurance and are not entitled to the National Minimum Wage. You won’t usually need to put them through payroll if this is their only job and they are paid below £129 a week, but keep pay records regardless.

Once they are 16, different rules apply. For 2026/27, workers aged 16 to 17 are entitled to at least £8 per hour and normal payroll requirements can apply.

The important bit: You can’t invent a job for your 13-year-old and pay them thousands of pounds for ten minutes on Instagram each month. Keep records of the work they do, their hours and how you have arrived at their rate of pay. So yes, employing your children can be perfectly legitimate. But this is one to set up properly rather than deciding retrospectively that your teenager has apparently been your Head of Marketing for the past year.

Good to know: GOV.UK confirms that under-16s do not pay National Insurance and are not entitled to the National Minimum Wage. For 2026/27, the minimum rate for workers aged 16 to 17 is £8 per hour. Separate child-employment restrictions apply to school-aged children.

4. Dinner and drinks

Your annual company celebration could also be on the business. The annual staff party exemption allows a company to provide annual social events costing up to £150 per head, provided they are open to all employees.

It doesn’t have to be Christmas. A summer barbecue or another annual event can qualify too. You can even have more than one qualifying annual event, as long as the combined cost stays within the £150-per-head limit. And if you are thinking, ‘But there are only two of us in the company’, that doesn’t automatically stop the exemption applying.

Partners and spouses can attend too, with the cost per head calculated using the total number of people attending. One important catch: £150 is an exemption, not an allowance. Go over the qualifying limit and you can’t simply knock £150 off the bill and pay tax on the rest.

What could this actually pay for? Two directors taking their partners to a qualifying annual event could mean up to £600 of company-paid food, drinks and entertainment within the £150-per-head exemption.

Good to know: HMRC says an annual party or similar social function can be exempt if it’s annual, open to all employees and costs £150 or less per person. HMRC also explicitly states that £150 is an exemption, not an allowance.

5. Your business mileage

If you use your own car to visit clients, suppliers, meetings or other temporary workplaces, your company can reimburse you for qualifying business mileage.

And there’s an important change for 2026/27. The approved mileage rate for cars and vans is now:

55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles

then

25p per mile after that.

The 55p rate increased from 45p from 6 April 2026, so be careful with older articles and mileage calculators. Ordinary commuting to a permanent workplace doesn’t count and you should keep a proper mileage record.

What could this actually pay? Drive 5,000 qualifying business miles in your own car and your company could reimburse you £2,750 at the approved rate.

Good to know: HMRC’s 2026/27 approved mileage rates are 55p for the first 10,000 business miles in a car or van and 25p thereafter. The increase took effect from 6 April 2026.

6. Some of the cost of working from home

If home is also your office, your company may be able to contribute towards the additional household costs.

Under an agreed arrangement where you regularly work from home, an employer can pay £6 a week or £26 a month towards qualifying additional household expenses without needing evidence of the exact additional cost.

That’s £312 over a full year.

If your genuine additional costs are higher, the company can potentially pay more, but you will need evidence to support the amount.

There has also been an important change from 6 April 2026. Employees can no longer make the separate personal claim to HMRC for unreimbursed homeworking expenses. However, the rules allowing an employer to reimburse qualifying homeworking costs tax-free remain. For limited company directors, that distinction matters.

Good to know: HMRC’s current employer guidance retains the £6-per-week or £26-per-month exemption for qualifying homeworking arrangements. The separate employee tax-relief route was removed from 6 April 2026.

7. Your laptop, monitor and other office kit

Need a laptop to work? A second screen? Other equipment for your home office? Your company can provide equipment, services and supplies required for your work without creating a tax charge where they’re used for business and any private use is insignificant.

That can include computers, laptops, tablets and office equipment. The distinction is fairly simple. Buying something the business genuinely needs is very different from putting a personal purchase through the company because you occasionally use it to answer an email.

Good to know: HMRC confirms that employer-provided homeworking equipment, services and supplies can be exempt where they’re for business use and any private use is insignificant.

8. That course you have been wanting to take

Want to improve your marketing skills? Learn new software? Take a management course? Update your technical knowledge? If the training is genuinely work-related, your company may be able to pay for it without creating a taxable benefit. The exemption can cover more than the course itself. It can also include things like books, course materials, examinations and qualifying travel costs.

So before paying personally for your next professional course, ask whether it is something the company should be funding. A pottery retreat because you are feeling burnt out probably is not going to qualify just because you answer a client email while you are there.

Good to know: HMRC’s work-related training exemption covers a broad range of relevant training and can include course materials, examinations, books and qualifying travel and subsistence.

9. Your professional membership

Pay every year to remain a member of the professional body associated with your job? Check before paying it personally.

Your company may be able to pay or reimburse qualifying professional subscriptions and membership fees without creating a tax charge. The organisation generally needs to be included on HMRC’s approved List 3 and the membership needs to be relevant to your work.

That does not mean your company can pay for any club you would quite like to join. Professional institute relevant to your job? Yes. Soho House because you occasionally meet a client there? Probably not.

Good to know: HMRC maintains its List 3 of approved professional organisations and learned societies. The current list was updated on 30 June 2026.

10. Some of your health costs

Spend your working life staring at a screen? Your company could potentially pick up the bill for a qualifying eye test. Where the test shows you need special glasses specifically for screen work, those can potentially be covered too.

That does not mean you can put your everyday designer glasses through the company because you sometimes wear them at your desk. The exemption relates specifically to glasses required for screen work. There are a couple of other useful exemptions too. Your company can provide or reimburse the cost of a flu vaccination, and HMRC also allows one periodic medical check or health screening per year to be provided tax-free.

From 6 April 2026, the rules around qualifying eye tests and screen glasses were also expanded to allow employers to reimburse the cost, rather than having to arrange them directly. Not enormous savings, admittedly. But if the company can legitimately pay, why pay personally?

Good to know: HMRC currently lists qualifying eye tests, screen-specific glasses, flu vaccinations and one periodic medical check or health screening per year among exempt health benefits.

11. Your pension

This one is potentially much more valuable than the smaller perks. Your limited company can make employer pension contributions for you.

For 2026/27, the standard pension annual allowance remains £60,000, although your own available allowance can be lower in certain circumstances. This includes some high earners and people who have already flexibly accessed pension benefits. Unused annual allowance from previous years can sometimes also be carried forward.

For company directors, employer contributions can be particularly attractive because qualifying contributions can potentially reduce the company’s taxable profits while moving money directly into your pension. But don’t read ‘£60,000 annual allowance’ as ‘transfer £60,000 from the company immediately’.

Your circumstances, existing contributions and the Corporation Tax rules all matter. Larger pension contributions are something to discuss with your accountant and, where appropriate, a financial adviser.

Good to know: HMRC confirms the standard pension annual allowance remains £60,000 for 2026/27, with reduced allowances potentially applying in certain circumstances.

12. A bike to get to work

If cycling to work is realistic for you, your company may be able to provide a bike and cycling safety equipment through the Cycle to Work scheme.

There’s no general upper value limit in the tax exemption, although the scheme has rules that need to be followed. The bike also needs to be mainly used for qualifying journeys, such as travelling between home and work or between workplaces. So if you’ve been eyeing up a decent commuter bike, it’s worth investigating before buying one personally.

Good to know: HMRC confirms that qualifying employer-provided bicycles and cycling safety equipment can be exempt from tax where the scheme conditions are met.

What to do next

Individually, some of these savings might seem small, but over a year they can add up. So before reaching for your personal card, it’s worth asking: should I be paying for this, or should my limited company? And if you’re not sure, that’s exactly what your accountant is there for.

If you’d like to check which expenses and benefits could apply to your limited company, get in touch.

The information in this article is based on UK tax rules and HMRC guidance applicable to the 2026/27 tax year. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and rules can change. This article is general information and isn’t a substitute for personalised tax, legal, pension or financial advice.

---

About Rachel Stewart

Rachel Stewart is the Director of Blue Leaf Accounting and knows first-hand what it’s like to build a business around a busy life. After more than a decade working in fundraising, she retrained in accounting and started Blue Leaf Accounting. Today, she helps business owners understand their numbers without the jargon or fear.

Want to know more about the team behind Blue Leaf? Find out more about Blue Leaf Accounting.