As a self-employed childminder in the UK, the expenses you can claim against your income fall into a few clear buckets: a percentage of your household running costs, a smaller percentage of your fixed household costs, a 10% wear and tear allowance on relevant income, the food and consumables you provide, business mileage, and professional costs like your Ofsted fee and insurance. HMRC also offers a flat £1,000 trading allowance as an alternative if your actual expenses are low. Which route saves you more depends on how many hours you work and how much you spend, and the rules are changing as Making Tax Digital phases in from April 2026.
Household Running Costs
HMRC lets you claim a percentage of heating, lighting and metered water instead of splitting every utility bill line by line. The percentage is set by how many hours per week you normally care for children in your own home, including time spent on outings with them. It is based on hours worked, not the number of children.1GOV.UK. Business Income Manual – Care Providers: Childminders: Expenses
- 40+ hours per week: 33% of running costs
- 35 hours: 29%
- 30 hours: 25%
- 25 hours: 21%
- 20 hours: 17%
- 15 hours: 13%
- 10 hours: 9%
If your hours land between the reference points, estimate proportionally. The flat-rate approach means no meter readings and no day-by-day apportionment.
Fixed Household Costs
Fixed costs are the household bills that do not really move with usage: council tax, rent or mortgage interest, and unmetered water. These use a separate, lower scale.
At 40 or more hours a week, you can claim 10% of fixed costs. For fewer hours, divide your weekly childminding hours by four and round up to the nearest whole number to get the percentage. So 16 hours a week gives 4%. At 25 hours you get 6.25, which rounds up to 7%.2GOV.UK. Claiming Expenses and Keeping Records if You’re a Childminder
One boundary to watch. Only the interest portion of your mortgage counts, not the capital repayment. Rent is simpler: apply the percentage to your total annual rent.
Wear and Tear on Household Items
Childminding wears out carpets, sofas, curtains and furniture faster than ordinary family use. HMRC recognises this with a 10% wear and tear allowance. You deduct 10% of your total childminding income earned from caring for children in your own home.1GOV.UK. Business Income Manual – Care Providers: Childminders: Expenses Income from work at other locations, such as a community centre, does not count toward the calculation.
The allowance covers items that are not used exclusively for childminding, which is what makes it useful. Your sofa is used by your family in the evening and by the children in the day, and the 10% figure accounts for that shared use without any tracking of individual items.2GOV.UK. Claiming Expenses and Keeping Records if You’re a Childminder
There is one important restriction. If you claim the wear and tear allowance, you cannot also claim separately for the cost of replacing those same items. It is one method or the other. Childminders who prefer can instead claim the actual replacement cost of individual items, restricted to the business-use proportion, but most find the flat rate simpler.
Food, Drink and Consumables
You can claim the cost of all meals, snacks and drinks you provide to the children. One practical method is to work out a daily cost per child for each meal and multiply across days and children. Alternatively you can claim based on the value of food bought specifically for the children. You cannot use both methods at the same time. Keep your costings in case HMRC asks to see them.
Fuel for cooking is not included here. That sits inside your running costs claim for heating and lighting, so keep the two categories separate to avoid double-counting.
Consumables get used up in the course of the day: nappies, wet wipes, cleaning supplies, first-aid materials, and craft supplies like paper, paint and glue. Receipts are the best documentation, but HMRC accepts reasonable estimates for small, frequent purchases where keeping every receipt is not practical.
Car and Business Travel
If you use your own car or van for business travel, HMRC’s approved mileage rate rolls fuel, insurance, maintenance and depreciation into one figure. From 6 April 2026 the rate for cars and vans is 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year.3GOV.UK. Expenses and Benefits: Business Travel Mileage for Employees’ Own Vehicles After 10,000 miles the rate drops to 25p per mile for the rest of the year.4HM Revenue & Customs. Travel – Mileage and Fuel Rates and Allowances
Business miles for a childminder typically include school runs with minded children, trips to activity groups and journeys to buy supplies. A commute to a setting you work at other than your own home also counts. Keep a simple log of dates, destinations and miles. Purely personal journeys do not qualify, even if they happen during your working day.
Ofsted, Insurance and Professional Memberships
Your annual Ofsted registration fee is fully deductible. The fee is £35 for the Early Years Register (or both registers), or £103 if you are on the Childcare Register only, paid each year on the anniversary of your registration.5GOV.UK. Childminders and Childcare Providers: Register with Ofsted – Fees
Public liability and professional indemnity insurance premiums are deductible as necessary business costs. Membership fees for professional bodies such as PACEY or the Early Years Alliance can be claimed where the membership is relevant to your work. HMRC keeps a list of approved professional organisations whose subscriptions qualify, so check any body you belong to appears on it before claiming.
Every expense you claim reduces your taxable profit, which cuts both income tax and Class 4 National Insurance. A £500 reduction in taxable profit does not just save income tax; it also saves £30 in Class 4 contributions if you are in the 6% band.6GOV.UK. Rates and Allowances: National Insurance Contributions
The £1,000 Trading Allowance as an Alternative
If your expenses are modest, the £1,000 trading allowance may beat itemising. Instead of claiming individual costs for utilities, food, wear and tear and travel, you deduct a flat £1,000 from your gross income. You cannot use the trading allowance alongside any other deductions. It is one or the other for the whole tax year.7GOV.UK. Tax-Free Allowances on Property and Trading Income
Once income exceeds £1,000, the choice is an annual calculation worth doing properly. Add up your deductible costs using the methods above. If the total beats £1,000, itemise. If it falls short, take the allowance. Most childminders working anything close to full-time will have expenses well above £1,000, which makes the allowance less relevant in practice.
What Changes Under Making Tax Digital from April 2026
From April 2026, self-employed people with gross income above £50,000 must use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. Under MTD, the 10% wear and tear allowance disappears entirely. You will instead need to claim relief based on actual purchases, repairs and replacements of items used for childminding.2GOV.UK. Claiming Expenses and Keeping Records if You’re a Childminder
If you are not yet required to use MTD, you can carry on with the 10% allowance in the meantime. It is worth tracking actual replacement costs now so the switch does not catch you off guard when your income bracket falls within the mandatory threshold.
The household expense percentages for running costs and fixed costs also change under MTD. Instead of the fixed tables above, you will need to work out a reasonable method of calculating the business percentage of your household costs, such as the proportion of rooms used or hours spent childminding.
Records You Need to Keep
Keep your financial records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year.8GOV.UK. Business Records if You’re Self-Employed: How Long to Keep Your Records Records for the 2025-26 tax year need to be kept until at least 31 January 2032. If records are lost or destroyed you can use estimated figures, but you must tell HMRC you are doing so when you file.
For the household percentage claims, keep a note of your weekly hours across the year. For food and consumables, keep either receipts or your costings. For mileage, keep the log. The paperwork is light compared with the tax it saves.