Working self-employed for removal firms

Your status depends on how the work is really done, not on what the paperwork calls it.

You’re self-employed if you run your business for yourself and take responsibility for its success or failure.

Signs: you quote for work, aren’t directly supervised, send invoices, pay your own tax, and get no holiday or sick pay.

What self-employed adverts paid →

Casual work can make you a worker instead: under a manager’s control, unable to send someone else, using the firm’s tools.

Workers get the National Minimum Wage, paid holiday and rest breaks. Employment law mostly doesn’t cover the self-employed.

HMRC’s CEST tool gives its view of your status for tax. It’s anonymous.

Only a court or tribunal decides for certain. Acas gives free advice on 0300 123 1100.

IR35 applies only if you work through your own company or another intermediary.

You can start straight away. Register for Self Assessment once your self-employed income is over £1,000 in a tax year.

Up to £1,000, the trading allowance is tax-free. Use it and you can’t claim expenses as well.

Register by 5 October after the end of the tax year you started in.

Your 10-digit UTR usually comes by post about 15 days after you register.

For 2025–⁠26, online returns and payment are due by 31 January 2027.

Payments on account are two payments towards next year’s bill, due 31 January and 31 July.

In the year you start, January’s bill can include a payment towards next year’s as well.

A late return costs £100 straight away, and more after 3, 6 and 12 months.

Register for VAT if your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in 12 months.

You pay no Income Tax up to £12,570, the standard Personal Allowance.

Above that, the basic rate applies up to £50,270. Scotland’s bands differ.

Tax and National Insurance are on your profit: what you’re paid, minus allowable expenses.

Class 4 National Insurance is 6% of profits from £12,570 to £50,270, and 2% above that.

You no longer pay Class 2. With profits of £7,105 or more, it counts as paid.

Under £7,105, you can choose to pay voluntary Class 2 at £3.65 a week.

HMRC’s calculator estimates your Income Tax and Class 4. It covered 2025–⁠26 when we checked.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to sole traders once their income passes a threshold.

From 6 April 2026 it applies if your turnover was over £50,000 in 2024–⁠25.

From 6 April 2027 it applies if your turnover was over £30,000 in 2025–⁠26.

From 6 April 2028 it applies if your turnover was over £20,000 in 2026–⁠27.

The threshold is turnover, before expenses, from self-employment and property together.

You keep digital records, send an update every 3 months, and still file a return by 31 January.

Updates are due by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May.

Spreadsheets are fine, with bridging software to send the updates.

HMRC writes if you’re over the threshold, but it’s still up to you to check.

Keep records of everything you’re paid and spend for the work, with receipts and bank statements.

Keep them at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for that year.

You can claim fuel, parking, vehicle insurance, repairs, hire charges, vehicle tax, breakdown cover and fares.

You can’t claim fines, personal driving, or travel between home and work.

For your own van or car, you can claim a flat 55p a mile instead, up to 10,000 business miles in 2026–⁠27, then 25p.

Safety boots and work-only overalls count. Everyday clothes don’t, even if you wear them for work.

On a work trip with nights away, hotel and meal costs can count. HMRC says this can extend to lorry drivers who sleep in their cab.

Public liability insurance for your work counts as an expense.

Public liability insurance covers claims from the public or other businesses, say if your work damages their property.

It isn’t required by law. HSE calls it “generally voluntary”.

Take someone on as an employee and you need employers’ liability insurance from day one.

As a sole trader you’re personally liable for your business’s debts. Insurance can give more protection.

For goods in transit, ask the firm what its own policy covers.

Since 1 October 2026, right-to-work checks cover some self-employed work, not just employees.

It depends on how the arrangement works in practice, not what it’s called.

Where a check applies, it happens before work starts: by document, Home Office share code or a certified digital ID provider.

A firm that has checked you needn’t check again before each job, unless your permission is time-limited.

British and Irish citizens: a passport (expired is fine), or a birth certificate with a letter showing your National Insurance number.

Everyone else: an online share code or your immigration documents. You choose which.

On Subber, the firm pays you directly.

How you get paid on Subber →

Every job says when: on the day, or within 7, 14 or 30 days. You see it before you say yes.

After a job you can say if you were paid on time, and firms show their record.

No payment date agreed? It’s late 30 days after the firm gets your invoice or you do the work, whichever is later.

Paid late by a business, you can claim interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, unless your contract sets a different rate.

You can add a fixed £40, £70 or £100, depending on the debt, towards the cost of recovering it.

If you send invoices, include a number, your name and address, the firm’s, the date of the work, the invoice date and the amount.