Personal Allowance
£12,570 tax-free, tapered by £1 for every £2 of profit over £100,000 and fully gone at £125,140.
Free UK trade calculator
What you'd actually keep as a sole trader
Enter your annual turnover or day rate and your expenses. See your taxable profit, Income Tax, Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance, take-home pay and what to set aside each month, with every figure sourced and the full band breakdown shown. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Self-employed tax and take-home calculator
2026/27 rates · checked 2026-08-22
Built for a UK sole trader with self-employment income only. Choose whether to enter an annual turnover figure or build it up from a day rate, then see a full breakdown, not just a headline number.
2026/27 estimate
- What you keep
- £32,128
- Set aside / month
- £573
- Turnover
- £45,000
- Expenses deducted
- £6,000
- Taxable profit
- £39,000
- Estimated Income Tax + NI (total liability)
- £6,872
General information for a sole trader with self-employment income only, 2026/27 rates. Not personalised tax advice: it does not cover other PAYE income, pensions, student loans, payments on account, or trading losses. Run entirely in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
What the calculator actually does
Income Tax bands
England/Wales/NI (basic, higher, additional rate) or Scotland's six bands, whichever applies to you.
Class 4 and Class 2 NI
Class 4 at 6% and 2% on profit; Class 2 treated as paid with nothing to pay once profit reaches £7,105, or voluntary below that.
Trading allowance vs expenses
Uses your actual expenses by default. Only uses the £1,000 trading allowance instead if you confirm you're eligible, since GOV.UK excludes some connected-income cases.
What this calculator does not cover
- Other PAYE employment income, pensions, student loans, or a limited company's salary/dividends. This is a sole-trader/self-employment calculator only.
- Payments on account. If your bill is over £1,000 and most of it wasn't collected through PAYE, HMRC will normally also ask for two advance payments toward next year's bill (31 January and 31 July): this calculator estimates the year's liability itself, not your cash-flow timeline around payments on account.
- Trading losses. If expenses exceed turnover, this calculator shows £0 profit rather than modelling a loss to carry forward or offset. That needs an accountant's judgement on your specific position.
- CIS deductions. If you work under the Construction Industry Scheme, use the CIS calculator, linked below, for the invoice-deduction and year-end questions this one doesn't answer.
Questions tradespeople ask about self-employed tax
How accurate is this self-employed tax calculator?
It uses current 2026/27 GOV.UK/HMRC rates for Income Tax (England/Wales/Northern Ireland and Scotland), Class 4 and Class 2 National Insurance, and the £1,000 trading allowance, checked directly against the primary source pages on 22 August 2026. It covers self-employment income only: it does not model other PAYE income, pensions, student loans, payments on account or trading losses, and it is general information, not personalised tax advice.
Does this calculator use my turnover or my profit?
Enter your turnover (or day rate) and expenses; the calculator works out your taxable profit by deducting your expenses. It does not automatically switch to the £1,000 trading allowance instead, because GOV.UK excludes some people from using it (broadly, trade or property income connected to your own company, partnership or employer). If you tick the eligibility box in Advanced options, it then uses whichever of the allowance or your expenses gives the better result; left unticked, it uses your actual expenses only.
Do I have to pay Class 2 National Insurance?
For 2026/27, Class 2 is treated as paid automatically, with nothing to pay, once your profit reaches £7,105. Below that, paying it is voluntary, and only worth doing to protect your State Pension record. The calculator reflects this rather than treating Class 2 as a flat charge.
How does this differ from a CIS calculator?
This calculator estimates your overall Income Tax and National Insurance position from your turnover or day rate. If you work under the Construction Industry Scheme, use TBV's CIS calculator instead: it handles the CIS-specific questions this one doesn't, working out an invoice deduction or a year-end position against CIS already deducted.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. Every calculation runs in your browser using the figures you enter; nothing is transmitted, stored or logged.