Do I need to register as self-employed?

Meet Maya

Maya is a graphic designer with a full-time job. A friend asks her to design a logo for their new coffee van, and pays her £250. Then the coffee van's neighbour wants one too. Then a local gym.

By the autumn, Maya has a small but very real side business. And a question that keeps her up at night: "Am I supposed to be telling someone about this?"

Maya is made up, but her story is one we hear all the time. So let's follow her through it.

The £1,000 line

HMRC gives everyone a £1,000 allowance for money earned from working for themselves. It's called the trading allowance.

If Maya earns £1,000 or less in a tax year, she doesn't need to register. Once she goes over £1,000, she does.

Two things catch people out:

• It's what you earn, not what you keep. The £1,000 is counted before expenses. If Maya invoices £1,400 but spent £500 on software, she's still over the line.
• It's per tax year, not per calendar year. A tax year runs from 6 April to the following 5 April.

Maya's three logos come to £1,350 between June and November. She's over, so she needs to register.

When Maya needs to do it by

Maya started in June 2026, which falls in the 2026 to 2027 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027).

Her deadline to register is 5 October 2027: the 5 October after that tax year ends. Her first tax return and any tax she owes are then due by 31 January 2028.

That's a long runway. But registering early has a real upside: Maya gets her paperwork sorted while the year is still fresh in her mind, and she knows roughly what she'll owe well before it's due.

How Maya registers

It's done online on GOV.UK, by searching for "register for Self Assessment if you're self-employed". Maya needs:

• her National Insurance number
• a Government Gateway user ID (she can create one as she goes)
• her personal details, like her address and date of birth
• a few business details: what she does, and the date she started

A couple of weeks later, a letter arrives with her Unique Taxpayer Reference, or UTR. It's a 10-digit number that's hers for life, and she'll use it every time she deals with HMRC about her business. Maya puts it somewhere safe. (Not on a sticky note on the fridge. We've seen it.)

But I already have a job

So does Maya, and that's completely fine. Lots of people are employed and self-employed at the same time.

Her employer keeps taking tax from her salary as normal. The Self Assessment tax return simply covers the extra money from her logos. She doesn't need to tell her employer anything.

What changes once you're registered

Not much, day to day. Maya keeps designing logos. But from now on, a few small habits will save her a lot of stress:

• Keep a record of every invoice and every receipt. A simple spreadsheet or app is plenty to start with.
• Track your expenses. Things like design software, a share of her phone bill and a new graphics tablet can all reduce her tax bill.
• Put some money aside from every payment, so the tax bill in January isn't a shock.

What if I'm under £1,000?

Then you don't have to register. Some people choose to anyway, for example so they can pay voluntary National Insurance, which counts towards their State Pension. If you're not sure, ask us.

Thinking bigger?

If your side business is growing fast and you're wondering whether a limited company would suit you better, our free report shows you which set-up works out best for you, and why.