Self Assessment for barbers

Register, file, pay

1. Register for Self Assessment if your gross trading income is over £1,000 in a tax year. Deadline to tell HMRC is 5 October after that year ends (5 October 2026 for 2025/26).
2. Keep income and expense records as you go. HMRC can ask for them for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline.
3. File the online return by 31 January 2027 for 2025/26 (paper was 31 October 2026). Pay the balancing payment the same day.
4. If last year’s bill was over £1,000, Payment on Account is due 31 January and 31 July, each 50% of that bill.

Full deadline calendar and penalty ladder.

What goes on the self-employment pages (SA103)

Turnover is what clients paid for cuts and retail, before chair rent. Rent goes in the premises or other expenses boxes, not as a deduction from sales. Card charges are allowable financial costs. If you sell product, include those sales in turnover and the cost of the stock in purchases.

Deadlines and penalties

Miss the online deadline and the late-filing penalty is £100 immediately, even if you owe no tax. After three months it is £10 a day (capped at £900). At six and twelve months HMRC add 5% of the tax due or £300, whichever is greater. Late payment is a separate 5% at 30 days, six months and twelve months, plus interest.

Mistakes barbers make on the return

• Using the amount the shop paid you as turnover when clients actually paid you.
• No cash record, then a round number that looks guessed.
• Claiming clothes because “we all wear black”.
• Ignoring product sales sitting in the same till.
• Not registering because the shop “said they’d sort tax”. They sort theirs.

If you left PAYE at a salon this year and started renting a chair, you now have two systems. The job has tax deducted. The chair does not. Register for Self Assessment for the chair work.

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