I have a small freelance income in addition to having a day job. It's enough that I need to file a tax return for the extra money that I earn.

My freelance work necessitates a reasonable outlay in terms of expenditure. I understand that I am allowed to offset this against the amount I earn from this work, and am taxed on the remainder.

However, I seem to recall reading or being told somewhere that freelancers and/or businesses were allowed to reclaim Value Added Tax (VAT) on purchases essential to their work. I'm not sure if this is true or not. Google isn't a lot of help (or I'm searching for the wrong things) and I'm not earning enough to employ a financial advisor to ask!

So - am I allowed to claim back the VAT I've paid on essential purchases in addition to setting their cost off against my income? If so, how?