Small business tax return
- Register by 5 October (0 if not owed)
- 2,026
- Tax year begins 6 April
- 2,025
- Paper return by 31 October
- 2,026
The rates, thresholds and deadlines these sheets apply are HMRC's published figures for the tax year you select; everything else is arithmetic on the numbers you typed.
A small business tax return, for anyone trading as an individual rather than through a company, is the self-employment pages of a Self Assessment return. It asks what the business turned over in the tax year, what it spent on allowable costs, and what is left; the profit joins any other income you had and the bill is worked out on the total. The work is not the form, it is deciding which of the year's payments were business costs and which tax year each one belongs to.
Open the Tax return dates Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Total the year's takings
Add up everything the business invoiced or was paid for work done between 6 April and 5 April. Which of those two dates a payment sits against is the question that decides the year, and the tax year planner on this site answers it for a given date.
Take off the allowable costs
Stock, materials, tools, the business share of a vehicle, the business share of the home, professional fees and insurance are all deductible; drawings, entertaining and the personal share of anything are not. What is left is the profit the return reports.
Work the bill on the total income
The profit is added to any employment, property or savings income for the same year. The personal allowance is applied, then the rate bands, then Class 4 National Insurance on the self-employed profit, and the estimator on this site shows each of those steps.
Stuck on the Small business tax return?
Tell us which figure is not behaving and we will tell you how the sheet arrives at it.
What somebody filing their own return asks about the Small business tax return
Do I need to file if the business made no money?
If HMRC has issued you a notice to file, yes, and a nil return still has to arrive by the deadline. If you have not been asked to file and your trading income for the year was under the £1,000 trading allowance, you may not need to register at all.
Which tax year does an invoice belong to?
On the usual basis, the year the work was done and the income arose, not the year the money landed. An invoice raised in March and paid in May belongs to the year that ended on 5 April.
Can I put my own wages in as a cost?
No. A sole trader is not employed by the business, so money taken out is drawings rather than a deductible cost. The tax is charged on the profit before anything you take.