Renting as a selfemployed

Hi , I live in Scotland but work in London on a selfemployed basis, while in London it is cheaper for me to rent a studio flat for the whole year rather than use a hotel or airbnb .My question is , can I claim that rent on my tax return , if so is there a cap or do I get to claim just a percentage of it, is there also a time limit like 6 months or 1 year max,how does it work? Thank you.

Hi,

If you actually work from home in the studio flat you can claim a proportion of the expenses. You can see guidance here:

Expenses if you're self-employed

Simplified expenses if you're self-employed

Thank you.

No , I do not work from home , I work in the construction industry , I have to rent because I can not travel from Scotland to London every day also it works out cheaper than staying at a hotel or Airbnb, over the course of a year.

Hi alex pocovnicu,
HMRC does not provide clearance, outside the Non-Statutory Clearance Service, to potential claims for tax relief that might be included on subsequent Self Assessment tax returns.
We can, of course, assist by providing any relevant guidance material and on that score.
It would be a good starting point to refer to BIM37000:
BIM37000 - Wholly and exclusively: contents
And the definition of the wholly and exclusively rule, as it is provided in the first paragraph there.
There are a couple of BIM references that touch on the rules on tax relief and accommodation and these are here:
BIM37665:
BIM37665 - Wholly and exclusively: duality of, or non-trade, purpose: non-travel topics: accommodation and subsistence
And:
BIM37928:
BIM37928 - Wholly and exclusively: expenditure having an intrinsic duality of purpose: living accommodation
Thank you.