Delivery rider tax hub
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Welcome to the delivery rider tax hub!
We’ve helped many delivery riders and want to keep helping many more. Here are some of the most asked questions 👇
Do I need to file a tax return?
If you are a delivery driver, rider, or courier for Deliveroo, UberEats, Stuart, AmazonFlex... or a similar company...and you earn over £1,000 in a year, you need to register with the tax authority (HMRC) and file a tax return each year. It can also be called 'self-assessment'. untied can help you do it 😁
What if I'm also employed?
You can be both employed and self-employed. When you're employed and get a payslip, your employer deducts the tax you have to pay. Delivery riders, like all self-employed workers, have the responsibility to report their income and pay their taxes to HMRC. Again, untied is here to help.
What tax do self-employed delivery riders pay?
You'll be paying two types of tax as you earn.
- Income tax applies to what you earn from work, investments, and property, etc
- National insurance applies to earnings from work. Over your career, your national insurance contributions build up your eligibility for a state pension
You may also be repaying student loans.
untied takes care of the tax calculations, giving you real-time updates of what you owe as you earn. When you submit your return, HMRC will send you an actual statement of what you need to pay and when.
How much tax do I need to pay?
The amount of tax you need to pay is based on how much you earn. Have a look at our page on " How much tax will I pay?"
For Income Tax, everyone has a personal allowance, which is the amount they can earn without paying tax. For most people, this is £12,570. After your personal allowance, your earnings between £12,571 and £50,270 are taxed at 20%. After that, the tax rates increase.
If self-employment is your only source of income, you can make up to £12,570 before you need to start paying Income Tax and National Insurance.
If you’re making over £1,000 from your self-employment though, you’ll still need to register with HMRC (the UK tax authority) and file a self-assessment tax return, even if you may have no tax to pay because you earned less than the personal allowance.
You may also have to pay tax on other earnings – for example, if you sell cryptocurrency or shares that have increased in value, if you rent out a property, or if you earn a lot from interest and dividends.
How can I register with HMRC?
You can use untied to register with HMRC. You'll then get a UTR (Unique Taxpayer Reference) number which you can enter in untied. It is ten digits long.
We recommend that you register when you start working as self-employed and are confident you'll be earning more than £1,000 in one tax year.
If you're leaving it late, the deadline is 5 October after the tax year you started working.
How do I do my tax return?
There are a few ways to get your tax return done:
- You can use untied, the quickest and easiest way. We'll guide you through the process and it can all be done on your mobile!
- You can gather all the data and fill in the forms directly on HMRC's website- If you have an accountant or bookkeeper, you use untied to help them help you. They'll find it quicker and easier to support you. Do tell them about our accountant portal.
When do I need to file a tax return?
A tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. We call the tax year that ran from 6 April 2023 to 5 April 2024 the 2023/24 tax year.
The deadline for submitting your self-assessment and paying any tax owed for 2023/2024 is 31 January 2025.
What does untied do?
untied is the UK's personal tax app and it's the best way to keep track of what you owe when you owe it, and most importantly, how much you can save.
We have been working with delivery riders since April 2020, always ready to answer questions with our five-star service. We also run live events with Q&A sessions.
There are two ways of using untied - untied lite for manual entry and untied Pro which is a full-powered tax app and the top choice of other riders, as it logs your journeys automatically to claim those mileage expenses!
What income is taxable?
Most earned income is taxable meaning that you will need to declare it to HMRC. All this can be done in untied.
For example, if in addition to your courier or delivery income, you make money from:
- Trading stocks, shares, or cryptocurrency
- Selling items on Depop, Etsy, eBay, or other trading websites
- Renting a property or a spare room
then you may need to pay tax on any of those profits too.
If you’re unsure whether income is taxable – send the untied team a quick message at team@untied.io
Do I need to do a separate tax return for two sources of income?
You only need to do one tax return, no matter how many sources of income you have. For example, if you work for both Deliveroo and Uber Eats (often called multi-apping), you only need to do one tax return – but just list both sources of income.
Also, if you are employed and also have self-employment income, both can be included on your tax return. untied takes care of all that for you.
What if I make less than the personal allowance (£12,570)?
Then you may not have to pay any tax, but you’ll still need to do a tax return.
If you made over £1,000, you need to make sure you're registered with HMRC and do a tax return.
Is Universal Credit taxable?
Universal Credit is not taxable.
View a list of taxable and tax-free state benefits
What are expenses?
As a self-employed, you may have some business costs when at work.
Expenses are any business costs associated with working. These expenses can be deducted from your overall income, so you can reduce the tax on your overall profit.
What can I claim as expenses?
You can claim expenses like:
- Your untied subscription
- Mileage (different rates apply for different types of vehicle, but untied calculates all that automatically for you)
- Parking fees (but not parking tickets)
- Bike maintenance
- Business insurance(s)
- Bags or branded clothing
- Mobile phone and any data (adjusted for any private use)
- Any other expenses incurred "wholly and exclusively" for your self-employment
What can’t I claim as expenses?
What you can’t claim for:
- Food unless you eg go to a conference away from home or your home area
- Everyday clothes
- Self-assessment tax penalties and interest (but untied helps you avoid these!)
- Mileage between your home and your first job of the day
How do I claim mileage?
HMRC gives you an allowance for how much you can claim per mile you travel.
You can claim money from your mileage if you deliver on a bicycle, motorbike, or in a car.The current business rate mileage is between 20p and 45p per mile, depending on what vehicle you used.
With untied you don't need to worry about what rate to use as we calculate it! With untied Pro you’re able to log your mileage in the background whilst you ride, so when you need to do your tax return, your savings are already calculated.
You can't claim mileage and claim costs of your vehicle.
Is it worth claiming mileage?
Absolutely! You can save loads of money by keeping a note or logging your mileage.
For example, if you rode 5,000 miles in a year on a motorbike (an average of less than fourteen miles a day) whilst working as self-employed for a delivery company, you’d save £1,200 in a year.
Can you claim mileage on a bicycle?
Yes! untied applies bike mileage at a rate of 20p a mile - which is the same one that HMRC allows for employees. We believe this is a fair reflection of the cost of running a bicycle.
untied Pro and lite will ask you what mode of transport you used to deliver orders and help you work out exactly how much you can save.
Can I claim mileage on an e-bike?
There are special rules that determine whether an electric bike or e-bike is treated as a bicycle or a motorcycle. You can claim mileage, but there are some specific rules around the rates you can get.
You'll need to know if it's an "EAPC" or not - an electrically assisted pedal cycle.
An EAPC is like a bicycle for tax purposes.
A non-EAPC is like a motorcycle or moped for tax purposes. It will also need to be registered and taxed, and you’ll need a driving licence to ride it. You’ll therefore probably already know if your e-bike is an EAPC or not!
Want more on whether your e-bike is an EAPC? Does it have:
- pedals that can be used to propel it
- a maximum power output of 250 watts
- a maximum speed of 15.5mph
If you tick all three, it's an EAPC and a bicycle for tax purposes.
Otherwise, it’s not an EAPC and is classed as a motorcycle or moped for tax purposes. The tax rules for motorcycles will apply, which means that untied will apply mileage at 24p a mile.
Can I claim the costs of the vehicle?
You can't double claim.
For a car, the best thing to do is to claim mileage. This covers the cost of the vehicle, car insurance, maintenance, fuel, etc.
If you have a bike or motorbike which you largely or totally use for deliveries, you can alternatively claim the business share - this can be 100% if it's only for deliveries. You can claim the cost of the bike, insurance, maintenance, fuel, etc. If you are claiming the business share, don't also claim mileage! Once you decide how you're claiming for a vehicle you can't then swap to the other method as that would be double claiming.
What does untied do?
untied helps you take care of your taxes from gathering data through to submission.
Lots of things happen automatically – meaning that you can keep track of what you owe, when you owe it, and most importantly, how much you can save.
Our software looks after a lot of what an accountant or bookkeeper may do. You can use untied and an accountant if you prefer.
We also know that people do have questions, so we have five-star service on hand if you need it.
We worked alongside Deliveroo as well as UberEats, Stuart, AmazonFlex (and many more) delivery riders and couriers since April 2020 to create the fastest, best-value way of getting your taxes done.
How does untied work?
untied has two plans – untied lite and untied Pro.
untied lite allows you to input information, directly from your payslips and manually calculate your expenses. You can also enter the miles you've travelled. The software will then calculate the tax you need to pay, based on that information and you can submit your tax return. Watch a walkthrough of untied lite [1-min video].
untied Pro links to your bank accounts, so you can tag your income and expenses as they happen – you can even add your receipts. The untied Pro app can also log your mileage automatically whilst you're riding, so that you don't have to write down all the miles or track them on a spreadsheet, saving you time––and don't forget those miles turn into more tax savings for you. Watch a walkthrough of untied Pro [2-min video]
Does untied allow me to add my employment?
Yes. We know that a lot of delivery riders and couriers also have other full or part-time jobs, so we let you easily add income earned from employment too.
Your employer will provide you with a P60/P45 form, and we'll show you where to enter that information in untied. If you have more than one employment income, then you'll want to upgrade to untied Pro.
Can I use untied on my phone and computer?
Yes, absolutely.
untied lite can be accessed from your mobile browser or on your computer.
untied Pro has its own mobile app available on iOS and Android, but it can also be used in your computer's browser.
Can untied help me amend a tax return from a previous year?
Sure - you can amend your tax return with HMRC, even after this has been sent. HMRC gives you 12 months to amend your tax return, so you can make changes to your 2022/23 tax return until 31 January 2025, even after its been sent to HMRC.
You can do this all easily via untied. See our article on amending a tax return for details how!
Can untied log my mileage?
untied Pro can log your journeys in the background whilst you ride, whereas untied lite requires you to calculate your own mileage separately.
How much does untied cost?
Tap any of the special offer buttons on this page to take advantage of the best pricing for self-employed delivery drivers, riders, and couriers.
You can get untied lite for just £24.99 – which is the cheapest way of getting your return done.
You can get untied Pro for £49.99 which is the most time and tax-efficient way of getting your return done.
Both options provide an annual subscription at a special discounted price for you. If you're using untied because of your business, don’t forget you can also claim the cost of untied as an expense!
Still not convinced…well, some riders have told us that using the mileage tracker in untied Pro has saved them so much time on paperwork that they can spend that saved time delivering. Imagine just having the time to do one more delivery every month instead of doing paperwork––that delivery each month would cover the cost for untied.
Why not just use HMRC?
You can, but make sure you have all the necessary records and information and a lot of time.
The most basic HMRC self-employment tax return runs to ten pages and has nearly 150 boxes for information – our estimates suggest it can take around seven hours to pull all the information together and enter it manually.
If you’re using untied we only capture the information that is relevant to your personal circumstances and we send all the data that's needed to HMRC, so you don’t have to worry.
We also take care of any questions along the way and find ways to help you save on your tax return.
How do I handle substitutes using my account?
Substitutes are people who use your account to work for a gig company, like Deliveroo, Uber Eats, or Amazon Flex.
There are different rules for different companies, but even if you’re using a substitute, you’ll still get paid the same. You should include this money as your business income but you treat what you pay your substitute as a business expense (so you don’t get taxed on the money you pass on!).
You can also include any other expenses you incur in using the substitute. If the substitute is using your vehicle, then include the expense you incur for it either as mileage or as a cost. However, do not include any expenses paid by the substitute (unless you have to pay towards them).
The substitute is responsible for registering for self-assessment and paying tax if they need to. And do introduce them to untied!
If you are a substitute, the amount you receive from the main account holder is your income - you will also have your own expenses.
For more help see our support pages or send the untied team a quick message at team@untied.io