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Self-employed?

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Self-employed debt advice

Self-employed income calculator

Being self-employed is a lot of work, but you need to know your income to deal with any debts you have. To work out your tax quickly, use our free self-employed calculator.

You will need to share:

  • The amount you get paid
  • What you spend on business costs

Please be aware this works out a guide amount of tax. You must always check with HMRC if you are not sure how much tax you need to pay.

This will work out your Class 2 contributions as standard. Not everyone has to pay these. If you earn less than £6,845 a year you do not pay them. But you can if you want to.

Self employed and sole trader income calculator

Please enter numbers only!
It looks like your business is running at a loss. Please check again and make sure all your income is included.
  • 1£
    Read moreEnter how much you get paid, and how often. To work out how much you are getting paid, use an average payment. This is the total divided by the number of payments.Close
  • 2£
    Read moreAdd up all of your business costs. This includes van or car hire, your accountant, insurance and so on. Close
  • Results
  • Your monthly income before any costs is:£
  • Your monthly income after your business costs is: 
  • Your yearly income after your business costs is: 
  • Income Tax*
  • This is the amount of tax you need to set aside each month: 
  • National Insurance (NI)*
  • This is the amount of class 2 NI you need to set aside each month: 
  • This is the amount of class 4 NI you need to set aside each month: 
  • Your monthly take home pay:  
  • Or weekly: 
  • Or fortnightly: 
  • Or four-weekly: 
  • Or yearly: 
  • * We based the Tax and NI figures in the calculator on what you have told us. These rates can vary. If you are worried, get expert advice from an organisation such as Tax Aid.

Working out your business costs

Business costs include things like:

  • Accountant fees
  • Business insurance
  • Travel and transport
  • Anything that you need to spend money on for your business

Add up these costs and put the total in the income calculator.

You need to make sure all your figures are either weekly, monthly or yearly. For example, you may buy petrol every week but only pay your accountant once a year.

Making sure you are paying the right amount of taxes

  1. You must save your income tax each month so you can pay your taxes at the end of the year
  2. Make sure you save money to pay into National Insurance. You do not need to pay any National Insurance (class 2 or class 4) if you are retirement age
  3. The Tax and NI figures in the calculator are based on information you have given us. They only show a very straightforward illustration

Read our guide to dealing with HMRC debts

Creating a business budget

It helps to:

  • Keep home and business budgets separate from each other: To avoid double counting or missing anything
  • Check your budget each month: It makes it so much easier to deal with the end of year tax return
  • Try to budget for spending that is not regular by breaking up the cost over the year
  • Keep a record of all spending, large or small – it all adds up
  • Look after the bills you need to pay to keep your business running
  • Put money aside to cover tax or national insurance:
  • Stay on top of things like energy and council tax payments
  • Use your budget if you need professional support or start debt advice

Check you are not being drawn into a tax avoidance scheme

Tax avoidance is when people bend the rules of the tax system to pay less than they should.

Those who join avoidance schemes end up having to pay:

  • The tax due in the first place
  • Interest on what was owed
  • Penalties, in some cases

This is on top of the fees or margin paid to join the scheme.

HMRC wants to:

  • Stop people entering such schemes
  • Help them leave tax avoidance schemes

Visit the government website to use their:

  • Interactive risk checker
  • Payslip guidance
  • Online form that can be used to report people selling tax avoidance schemes

Find out more at Gov.UK