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Is My Job Actually Worth It?

Is Self-Employment Worth It?

Your income, business costs and time — see what working for yourself could really leave you.

100% free to use · No account needed · Your calculation stays on this device unless you choose to share it.

📋 Before you start — useful documents

You do not need all of these. Use what you have and leave unknown optional items blank.

⭐ Invoices & bank receipts
Check income actually received, before CIS deductions and excluding VAT collected.
🧾 Expense receipts & bills
Tools, boots, insurance, software and other costs, including occasional replacements.
📅 Booking diary / timesheets
Client work, unpaid admin, holidays and gaps between jobs.
📄 Client contracts / agreed rates
Your hourly or day rate and expected paid work.
💷 Pension information
The amount you pay and whether your provider adds tax relief.
📑 CIS deduction statements
Tax already deducted by contractors, if CIS applies to you.
🚗 Travel & other work costs
Business travel, normal commuting and personal costs such as childcare.
📚 Tax calculation / HMRC statement
Useful for checking known annual liabilities and payments already allocated to the year.

These are suggestions to help you answer the questions. You do not need to upload these documents.

1. Your situation

Other income can change tax bands, National Insurance and student-loan repayments. Use independently worked-out business tax figures if it applies.

2026/27 tax year: 6 April 2026–5 April 2027. Automatic estimates cover a simple UK-resident sole trader for a full year, without brought-forward losses, special allowances, other income or tax charges. They do not determine employment status. Check your status.

2. Your working year

Start with the time you make available for work. We subtract unpaid time off and the work you cannot bill to clients. Enter zero where none applies.

Usually 52 for a full-year comparison.

Exclude normal breaks and commuting.

Total days you will not work. Do not add bank holidays twice.

Your planning allowance, not statutory entitlement.

Exclude these days from the weekly admin and travel hours below.

Within the working hours above: quoting, buying materials, cleaning equipment, setting up, packing away, marketing, chasing invoices and correcting work you cannot charge for. Include each hour once; keep training and business travel in their separate fields.

Within your available work time. Do not also include them in admin.

Travel between clients or sites during work. Count once, separate from normal commuting.

Whole return journey. Shown separately; excluded from real-life hourly value.

Client hours + unbilled business hours = total working time. Gaps and days off reduce capacity; commuting remains separate.

3. Income from your work

Before CIS deductions, after refunds, excluding VAT collected. Annual/monthly figures mean money received or realistically expected in the year, not unpaid invoices.

For day/hour rates, this assumes all calculated billable capacity is paid. Allow for unbooked or cancelled days in step 2. If cancellations or non-payment reduce what you expect to receive, you can enter a realistic annual or monthly total instead. Do not also deduct unpaid invoices as a bad-debt cost when that money is already excluded from receipts. Late payments may change which year the money arrives.

4. Costs of running the business

Include costs you actually pay, including irregular replacements. Blank costs count as £0 and will be flagged for review. If VAT-registered, exclude VAT you can reclaim from costs; this calculator does not forecast VAT payments or refunds.

Seasonal costs: weekly amounts are multiplied by 52 and monthly amounts by 12, even if you work fewer weeks. For costs paid only during working weeks, enter an annual total or choose “Per purchase” and the number of payments. For example, £50 for 40 weeks is £2,000 a year.

Enter business costs

Tools, boots & equipment

Include replacements. Ordinary clothing is not normally allowable; protective clothing may be.

Business vehicle & travel

Enter your business cash spending, not a mileage allowance as well as fuel. Ordinary commuting belongs below.

Insurance & professional fees

For example public liability, professional indemnity, licences and trade subscriptions.

Accountant & bookkeeping

Enter the cash bill, then check its tax-allowable share. Business bookkeeping/accountancy and preparing your personal Self Assessment return have different tax treatment: the cost of preparing and submitting that personal return is not an allowable business expense. Ask for a breakdown and choose “Only part of it” where appropriate.

Phone, software & subscriptions

Only include the cash cost you want to attribute to this work; check the allowable business share.

Workspace & running costs

Rent, coworking, storage or the attributable share of working from home.

Materials, stock & subcontractors

Cash spending expected during this year. Do not enter your own drawings or tax bill.

Marketing, website & payment fees

Web hosting, advertising, card processing and platform fees.

Training & qualifications

Tax treatment depends on the training and your existing business.

Other business costs

For example repairs, business finance payments or other spending not entered above. Include each payment only once. Repaying the amount borrowed reduces your cash but is not itself a tax deduction; eligible interest may be allowable. For financed equipment, do not count both its full purchase price and the repayments as cash costs. If the confirmed tax deduction differs, use the annual deduction option below.

Actual cash spending is still subtracted from your money under either method.

HMRC allowable expenses · Clothing · Travel · Accountancy, finance & bad debts

Personal costs caused by work

Normal commute costs

Travel between home and your usual workplace; does not reduce taxable profit here.

Childcare caused by work

Personal spending from your own money, not an assumed business deduction.

Other personal work costs

For example ordinary meals or clothing, if you want them reflected in what this work leaves you.

5. Tax, pension & money already paid

Reaching State Pension age during a year does not automatically mean exemption for that whole year. Check your position.

If you repay more than one undergraduate plan, select the one with the lowest threshold.

Relief-at-source assumes you are under 75 and within your available earnings and pension limits. Other schemes or complex pension limits need separately checked tax figures.

Enter your own payment, before the provider adds relief. It is not a business expense.

From your CIS statements. Enter gross income before this deduction in step 3. CIS is a tax credit, not an expense.

Only amounts allocated to this year. This affects the estimated remaining balance, not the annual cost of tax.

An estimate of payments on account is shown only for the simple automatic-tax case. Your HMRC statement determines what is due. How payments on account work.

6. What would make it worth it? (optional)

You can copy the annual after-costs result from the main job calculator to use as a target. Pension is already budgeted in step 5.

Optional time comparison. Exclude normal commuting and breaks on both sides.

Optional total employee + employer contributions. Compare separately from spendable money.

Matching the money does not replace employment protections, predictable work or paid benefits. Freedom, flexibility and risk matter too.

Your results will appear here

Enter your working pattern and income, then calculate. You will see spendable money, real hourly value, tax to plan for and a target day rate.

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Suggest a feature or improvement

Only your suggestion and optional reply address are sent to the website owner. Your calculator answers are not attached.

How this estimate works

2026/27 sole-trader planning, using annual figures. It is not a tax return, an employment-status check, or a promise of bookings. Loss relief, other-income interactions, benefits, Child Benefit charges, special tax allowances and complex pensions need separate advice. Automatic estimates do not cover limited companies or partnerships.

Cash spending and tax deductions are kept separate. Normal commute minutes do not enter real-life hourly value; commute costs reduce the money left. Business travel and admin within your working time do enter the denominator.

Income Tax · Scotland · Self-employed NI · Student loans

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