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Self-employed?

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Self-employed debt advice

Self-employed income calculator

Once all your business costs are covered, what exactly is your take home pay?

Being self-employed is a lot of work, but you need to know your income to deal with personal debts.

A business budget helps:

  • Show how much money your business makes
  • Show how much you spend on business costs
  • Keep you up to date with bills
  • Work out what you can pay yourself as a wage

Money worries?

Find out how we can help you.

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Creating a business budget

Making a business budget is the easiest way to work out your wage.

Make sure to include the amounts you have to pay towards Tax and National Insurance (NI).

Use our self-employed and sole trader income calculator. Enter:

  • The amount you get paid
  • What you spend on business costs
  • We work out your Tax and NI figures for you

Our calculator uses standard Tax and NI calculations.

Get specialist self-employed debt advice if your situation is more complicated.

Self employed and sole trader income calculator

Please enter numbers only!
The figures you've entered show that your business is running at a loss. Please recheck your figures and make sure you've included all your income.
  • 1£
    Read moreEnter how much you get paid, and how often. To work out how much you're getting paid we recommend you use an average over the past few payments you've received.Close
  • 2£
    Read moreAdd up all of your business costs and put the total here, e.g. the amount you spend on a van/car (inc. lease, petrol, tax, insurance and servicing), accountant fees, business insurance and so on. If you pay at different intervals read the Business Costs section below.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 if you'd prefer to know it:
  • Weekly: 
  • Fortnightly: 
  • Four-weekly: 
  • Yearly: 
  • * The Tax and NI figures in the calculator are based on the information you've given us and are only based on a very straight forward situation. If you think you might have to pay something different or you're not sure how to pay then you should 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/Transport. This includes the amount you spend on:
    • A van or car
    • Lease hire
    • Petrol
    • Tax
    • Insurance
    • Servicing

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.


  • To change weekly figures to monthly
    • Multiply the weekly figure by 52 (the number of weeks in the year)
    • Divide this by 12 (the number of months in the year)
  • To change monthly figures to yearly
    • Multiply the monthly figure by 12 (the number of months in a year)
  • To change monthly figures to weekly
    • Multiply the monthly figure by 12 (the number of months in a year)
    • Divide the total by 52 (the number of weeks in the year)

Money worries?

Find out how we can help you.

Get help now

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

Business debt help

Contact Business Debtline for help with self-employed or business in England, Wales or Scotland.

They can:

  • Offer practical self-help
  • Empower you to speak to creditors directly
  • Offer solutions for finance and debt problems
  • Advise on important business debts such as tax and business rates
  • Support if creditors take court action
  • Help review business finances
  • Help decide next steps including:
    • How to recover debts from other people
    • How to close a business if best
  • Advise on personal debts such as:
    • Credit cards
    • Bank loans
  • Help with budgeting

In Northern Ireland, you should contact Advice NI's Business Debtline for similar advice.

To explore if your business is viable, visit:

Things to remember

  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

signpost iconGet expert advice from an organisation like Tax Aid if:

  • You think you might have to pay something different
  • You are unsure how to pay