What can a self-employed painter and decorator claim?
Trade paint and paper, brushes and sleeves, the airless sprayer, tower hire, your whites and your van all come off your profit before tax. Here is which costs are materials and which are tools, when a decorating job is under CIS and when it is not, and a worked year showing the refund.
HMRC-recognised
CIS deductions handled
No monthly subscription
What a self-employed painter and decorator can claim
Paint, paper and what stays on the wall
Trade emulsion and eggshell, primer and undercoat, wallpaper and paste, filler, caulk and wood stain all end up in the customer's house, so they are materials. Record them as Goods for resale, which HMRC calls goods used, and the price you charge for them as income. Buying a trade account's worth of stock in March is still an expense when you pay for it.
Brushes, sleeves and sundries
Roller sleeves, trays and liners, masking tape and film, dust sheets, sanding discs and abrasive pads are used up in the work. They are consumables, recorded as Other expenses. Brushes, roller frames, filling knives, scrapers and caulk guns are hand tools, recorded as Repairs and maintenance. Either way they are allowable the day you pay for them, whether a brush lasts a week or a season.
Sprayers, sanders and extraction
An airless or HVLP sprayer, a dust-free sanding system and its extractor, a wallpaper steamer and a mixing drill are equipment. Under the cash basis each one is an expense in the year you pay for it, whatever it cost, recorded as Repairs and maintenance. Spray tips, filters, hoses and sanding mesh are consumables on top, in Other expenses.
Ladders, podiums and towers
Ladders, a podium and an alloy tower you buy are equipment, recorded as Repairs and maintenance. Hiring a tower or a cherry picker for an exterior is allowable too, recorded as Other expenses along with the delivery charge. If the customer pays for the hire, the full amount they pay you is income and the hire is the expense that comes off it.
Whites, masks and site cards
Decorators' whites and overalls protect your everyday clothes, so buying them and washing them are allowable, as are a respirator for spraying, dust masks and eye protection. Renewing your CSCS card and the health and safety test that goes with it, and the refresher for a PASMA or IPAF card you already hold, are costs of staying on site, allowable and recorded under Other expenses.
Waste, cover and finding work
Disposing of old tins, solvent paint and stripped paper through a licensed site is a cost of the job, recorded as Other expenses. Public liability and tool insurance go in Insurance; directory listings, your website and van signwriting in Advertising costs; the business share of your phone and your accountant's fee each in their own box.
The rules behind every claim: allowable expenses for sole traders.
Your van and getting to jobs
For the van you choose one method and keep it for as long as that van is in the business. Either claim HMRC's flat mileage rates, 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p after that, or claim the business share of what the van actually costs to run. Under the cash basis a van bought outright is an expense in the year you pay for it, and deducting it rules out the flat rate for that van; a car is not.
Most decorators run the trade from home and drive to a changing run of houses, so the drive from home to each job is business travel, and so is the run to the merchant for paint. The exception is the long contract: six months decorating plots on the same new-build site can make that site your regular place of work, and the daily drive there a commute. Parking at a job counts. A parking ticket never does.
A sprayer, a tower and twenty litres of paint do not go in a hatchback, which is why most decorators are in a van. If you use the family car for a small job, the business share of its running costs, or the flat rate for those miles, is still allowable; the private miles never are.
The two methods, which journeys count and the van and car rule: can I claim mileage.
CIS and VAT
Painting a building is a construction operation
The law behind CIS lists painting or decorating the internal or external surfaces of any building or structure, so when a builder, main contractor, developer or property maintenance company pays you to decorate, they take 20% off your labour, or 30% if you are not registered, and never off materials. Record the gross amount as income and enter each contractor statement in FileThat so the tax already taken counts against your bill.
Homeowners and most landlords are not contractors
A householder having their own home decorated is never a CIS contractor, so nothing is taken off and you pay the tax through your return. Neither is a business outside construction, such as a shop or a landlord letting out flats, unless it spent over £3 million on construction work in the last 12 months. Many decorators do both kinds of work, so keep CIS and private income as separate records.
Show the paint on its own line
The deduction is worked out on what is left after the materials you paid for come off, VAT included if you are not VAT registered. If your invoice does not show the paint separately, or you cannot produce the receipts, the contractor is allowed to estimate the materials and deduct on the rest. Tax taken off paint is money you only see again when you file.
Spraying doors in your workshop is different
HMRC treats work done on items sent to a workshop in isolation, such as spraying or French polishing cupboard doors a joinery firm drops off, as outside CIS. If the same contract has you take the doors off, finish them and refit them on site, the whole job is inside. If you are VAT registered and decorating for a VAT-registered contractor, the domestic reverse charge usually applies: record those sales as Construction industry - reverse charge sales.
See what you could get back: the CIS refund calculator.
A decorator's year, worked through
Take a decorator in England who invoices two builders £36,000 over 2026-27, with £6,000 of that shown as paint and materials on the invoices. The builders deduct 20% of the £30,000 labour, so £6,000 goes to HMRC and £30,000 reaches the bank. Private work for homeowners adds £10,000 with nothing taken off. Turnover is £46,000.
Expenses for the year: £8,800 of paint and materials (the £6,000 charged on plus £2,800 for the private jobs), £900 of brushes, sleeves, tape and sheets, a £1,500 airless sprayer, £300 of ladders and £400 of tower hire, 9,000 business miles at the flat rate (£4,950), £420 of insurance, £288 as the business share of the phone, £60 for the CSCS card and test, and £200 of accountancy. That is £17,818, leaving a profit of £28,182.
The first £12,570 is covered by the Personal Allowance. Income Tax at 20% on the remaining £15,612 is £3,122.40, and Class 4 National Insurance at 6% on the same £15,612 is £936.72, a bill of £4,059.12. HMRC already holds the £6,000 the builders deducted, so the refund is £1,940.88.
Had the paint not been shown separately, the builders would have deducted 20% of the full £36,000, which is £7,200. The tax bill is the same, so the refund would have been £3,140.88: the same money, but £1,200 more of it sitting with HMRC until the return is filed. Scottish taxpayers pay different Income Tax rates, so their figure differs a little.
What you cannot claim
Jeans under the whites
The whites are protective and allowable. The jeans, T-shirt and trainers under them are everyday clothing and never are, however much paint they end up wearing.
Lunch on a local job
A meal near home is not a business cost, because you would have eaten anyway. Food counts only when you are working away from your normal pattern, such as a week on a contract with an overnight stay.
Your own hallway, your mate's kitchen
Paint for your own house, or a weekend doing a friend's kitchen for nothing, is private even when it comes off the trade account. Record it, mark it disallowable, and it stays out of your profit.
Fines, drawings and your own tax
Parking and speeding fines, interest on late tax, the money you pay yourself and the Income Tax and National Insurance on your profit are never allowable.
The rules in full: work clothes, food and meals and mileage, parking and fines.
Straight answers
Does painting and decorating come under CIS?
Yes, when a contractor pays you. The law behind the scheme lists painting or decorating the internal or external surfaces of any building or structure as a construction operation, so a builder, developer or maintenance company must take 20% off your labour, or 30% if you are not registered. Decorating a homeowner's own house is outside the scheme: a householder is never a CIS contractor, so nothing is taken off and you pay the tax through your return.
I spray doors and units in my workshop for a joinery firm. Is that CIS?
Usually not. HMRC's manual treats work done in isolation on items sent to a specialist workshop, such as spraying or French polishing doors that are delivered to you, as outside CIS, so the firm should pay you in full. The answer changes if your contract also has you remove the doors from the building and refit them afterwards: then the whole job is inside the scheme and the deduction applies. Get the contract wording clear before you price it.
Should I show the paint separately on my invoice to a builder?
Yes, every time. CIS is only ever taken off labour, and the contractor works the deduction out on what is left after the materials you paid for come off, VAT included if you are not VAT registered. If the paint is not on its own line, or you cannot show the receipts, the contractor is allowed to estimate the materials cost and deduct on the rest, which usually means more tax taken than needed. You get it back when you file, but only then.
Can I claim washing my whites and overalls?
Yes. Gov.uk allows clothing that protects your everyday clothes while you work, overalls being its own example, and the claim covers buying, cleaning and repairing them. There is no fixed laundry allowance for the self-employed, so claim what the washing reasonably costs you and keep a note of how you worked it out. The everyday clothes underneath, and washing those, stay private.
I use the family car for work. Can I claim 80% of everything, or just the fuel?
Either the business share of all its running costs, or the flat rate per business mile, but never both for the same car. On actual costs the business share applies to fuel, insurance, servicing, tyres, the MOT and vehicle tax alike, backed by a mileage log; it is not limited to fuel. On the flat rate you claim 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p after, and nothing else for the car except parking and tolls. Once you pick a method for a vehicle you keep it until you replace the vehicle.
Do self-employed painters and decorators have to use Making Tax Digital?
If your qualifying income is over the threshold, yes. It has been £50,000 since 6 April 2026, and falls to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. Qualifying income is your turnover before expenses, from self-employment and property together, so it includes the paint you charged on to customers and the gross amount the contractor paid before CIS came off, not what reached the bank.
Keep every claim, file it with HMRC
The income and expenses ledger is free all year, built for painters and decorators working from a phone on site. Each new quarterly update costs from £3.99, with 4 free credits to start and no monthly subscription.
Get started free