Free tool
See roughly how much Income Tax and National Insurance you'll owe as a UK sole trader — and what you'll actually take home. Enter your annual profit and we do the banded maths, instantly and in your browser.
That's your income after allowable business expenses — not your turnover. Tax year 2025/26 rates for England, Wales & Northern Ireland.
Enter your annual profit to estimate your Income Tax, Class 4 National Insurance and take-home pay.
As a sole trader you're taxed on your profit — what you invoice minus your allowable business expenses — not your turnover. Two things come out of that profit: Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance.
For the 2025/26 tax year (England, Wales & Northern Ireland) the bands are:
We add the two together, subtract them from your profit to show your take-home, and turn the total into a simple percentage to set aside. The personal allowance also tapers away once profit passes £100,000, which the calculator accounts for. It is a planning estimate to help you budget, not tax advice.
As a sole trader you pay Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance on your profit (income after allowable expenses), not on your turnover. For 2025/26 the first £12,570 is tax-free (the personal allowance), then Income Tax is 20% up to £50,270, 40% up to £125,140 and 45% above that. Class 4 NI is 6% on profit between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% on anything above £50,270. This calculator adds those together to estimate your total bill and take-home.
Turnover is everything you invoice. Profit is what's left after you subtract allowable business expenses — software, equipment, travel, a portion of home costs and so on. You're taxed on profit, so enter your profit here, not your total invoiced income.
A common rule of thumb is to put aside 20–30% of every payment into a separate account, but the right figure depends on your profit. This calculator shows the actual percentage your estimated tax and NI work out to, so you can set aside that amount as money comes in and avoid a nasty surprise at Self Assessment.
No. From 6 April 2024 most self-employed people with profits above the small profits threshold no longer pay Class 2 NI but still build up their State Pension entitlement, so it's left out to keep the estimate simple. The calculator also ignores other income, pension contributions, student loan repayments, the Marriage Allowance and payments on account.
It's a planning estimate, not a tax return. It uses the 2025/26 bands for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and assumes self-employment is your only income. Scotland has different Income Tax bands. Always check the current rates on GOV.UK or speak to an accountant before relying on a number.
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