UGC Creator Expenses UK: Everything You Can Claim

UGC creators often spend money long before a tax return is due. A better phone setup, lighting, editing tools, props, portfolio costs and travel for shoots can all sit behind paid brand content.

When those costs are genuinely for the business and properly recorded, they can affect taxable profit. But creators also need to be careful with personal use, mixed-use items and purchases that feel creator-adjacent without being a clear business cost.

If you want the wider tax overview first, read our UGC creator tax guide. This guide focuses on the expenses side.

The Basic Rule for UGC Expenses

Allowable expenses should be business costs. If a cost has both a business and personal element, only the supported business part should be considered.

For UGC creators, that usually means asking:

• Was the cost incurred for paid content work or running the creator business?
• Is any part of the cost personal?
• Can I explain how the cost links to my UGC activity?
• Do I have the invoice, receipt or record behind it?

HMRC's self-employed expenses guidance explains the core rules. Good bookkeeping then turns those rules into records you can actually use.

How Long Should You Keep Expense Records?

Your records support the profit figure on your tax return. HMRC expects self-employed people to keep records of business income and expenses and keep proof behind those figures.

For UGC work, useful records can include:

• Receipts and supplier invoices
• Bank and card statements
• Cloud accounting exports
• Brand briefs that explain unusual shoot costs
• Notes linking props or purchases to a campaign
• Mileage and travel records where relevant

HMRC explains what to keep in its guidance on self-employed business records.

Camera and Production Equipment

Production gear is often central to UGC work. Relevant business equipment may include:

• Smartphones used for content creation
• Mirrorless cameras, DSLR cameras or action cameras
• Lenses, filters and camera accessories
• Tripods, gimbals and stabilisers
• Ring lights, softboxes and LED panels
• Backdrops, seamless paper and portable studio kits
• Microphones and audio recorders
• Memory cards, storage drives and production accessories

Equipment needs a closer look than a simple monthly subscription. The tax treatment can depend on the accounting basis used and whether there is private use. A phone used for business and personal life is not the same as kit kept solely for client shoots.

Keep purchase evidence and be realistic about business use. If the item is shared, the private part should not be treated as a business claim.

Editing and Creative Software

Software is one of the easiest cost areas to lose track of because subscriptions can be small, frequent and spread across platforms.

Tools to review may include:

• Video editing software
• Photo editing and design subscriptions
• Captioning and transcript tools
• Music licensing services for content work
• Cloud storage and backup
• Content review, delivery or creator workflow tools

Keep subscription invoices where available. A regular software cost can be legitimate and still become messy if it is buried among personal app payments.

Props, Styling and Set Dressing

Props can be important in UGC, especially for lifestyle shots, problem-solution videos, packaging scenes, recipe content or product demonstrations.

Business costs may include:

• Props bought specifically for a shoot
• Background materials
• Set dressing items used for content production
• Styling accessories used to deliver client content

The business purpose matters. A neutral prop bought for a planned product shoot is easier to support than a household purchase that later appears in a video. Where a prop has personal use, pause before treating the full amount as a business expense.

Home Studio and Home Working Costs

If you shoot content from home, home working costs may be relevant. Some sole traders use simplified expenses for working from home, while others calculate a supported business proportion of actual costs where appropriate.

Which route fits depends on the facts and the costs involved. Home working claims can also differ from claims for separately identifiable business costs such as certain phone or internet use.

HMRC explains the options in its guidance on simplified expenses.

Marketing and Business Development

UGC is a service business, and getting in front of brands often takes its own spend.

Costs to review may include:

• Your website or portfolio site
• Portfolio hosting and landing page tools
• Membership fees for UGC platforms used to find work
• Business cards or printed promotional materials
• Brand outreach tools used for the business
• Design and copy support for your creator business

Where a platform fee or subscription is used partly for personal networking and partly for business lead generation, keep the position sensible and evidence-based.

Professional Development

Training can be an expense area worth checking, but it needs thought. Training that helps you improve or update skills used in your current business may be different from a course that helps you start a new, unrelated business area.

For a UGC creator, training to review might include:

• Content production workshops
• Editing or filming training relevant to your current work
• Industry subscriptions and technical learning materials
• Business skills training that supports the creator business

Keep the course outline and a note of how it relates to the work you already do. That gives much better support than a vague label such as “masterclass”.

Professional Fees

Professional support costs are easy to overlook when creators focus mainly on production gear.

• Accountancy fees
• Bookkeeping support
• Legal fees connected with brand contracts
• Business bank charges
• Professional services used to run the UGC business

If you want your income, invoices and expenses kept clearer through the year, our bookkeeping service can help.

Travel for UGC Work

Travel can be relevant where it is genuinely for business, such as going to a brand location, shoot venue or work-related event. Personal journeys and ordinary private travel are not turned into business costs just because you are a creator.

Records may include:

• Train, taxi or parking receipts for qualifying business travel
• Mileage logs for business journeys
• Notes showing the client, shoot or work purpose
• Evidence for accommodation or other travel costs where relevant

HMRC has separate guidance for self-employed travel expenses and simplified mileage rules.

Common Expense Mistakes UGC Creators Make

Some creators underclaim because they are unsure. Others go too far and treat ordinary lifestyle spending as a tax deduction. Neither route is ideal.

• Forgetting small subscriptions and software renewals
• Not keeping receipts for props and shoot purchases
• Claiming a full shared phone or household cost without considering personal use
• Missing travel records
• Assuming every course, outfit or product purchase is automatically claimable
• Waiting until tax return time to rebuild the year from memory

Keep UGC Expenses Organised

Cloud accounting software linked to the right bank and payment records can make expense tracking much easier. It helps you see what the creator business costs to run and makes tax work less frantic later.

A useful system should help you keep track of:

• Recurring subscriptions
• Production gear and equipment spend
• Props and campaign-related purchases
• Mixed-use costs needing review
• Travel and shoot costs
• Professional fees and tax records

Need Help With UGC Expenses?

At Simplr Accounting, we work with UGC creators and digital freelancers across the UK. We help make sense of brand income, expense records, creator systems and the tax return that follows.

If you want support getting your UGC finances in order, book a free discovery call.