Farrier
Tax & MTD Guide
Allowable expenses for tools, forge and van, mileage between yards, record-keeping, National Insurance, VAT and MTD explained for self-employed UK farriers.
- A self-employed farrier is taxed on profit (takings minus allowable expenses) through Self Assessment, paying Income Tax and Class 4 plus Class 2 National Insurance for 2025/26.
- Vehicle costs are usually the single largest deduction: a mobile round means heavy mileage, so choose between 45p-per-mile simplified mileage or actual van costs plus capital allowances, and keep a mileage log.
- Tools and equipment, from rasps, nippers and hammers to the forge and anvil, are claimed as expenses or via the Annual Investment Allowance, and protective chaps, aprons and boots count as PPE.
- Shoes and nails bought but not yet fitted at year end are stock, not an expense, so a farrier needs basic stock records to get profit right.
- MTD for Income Tax starts April 2026 above GBP 50,000 gross, April 2027 above GBP 30,000 and April 2028 above GBP 20,000, replacing the annual return with quarterly digital updates.
Shoeing horses is physical, mobile and tool-heavy, and the tax that comes with it reflects all three. A working farrier drives a kitted-out van from yard to yard, burns through shoes, nails and gas, replaces and sharpens tools constantly, and bills a mix of private owners, livery yards, riding schools and the occasional racing or competition stable. Unlike a desk trade, almost everything that matters for your tax bill happens on the road and at the anvil, so the discipline is capturing it as you go rather than reconstructing a year of visits from memory each January.
This guide is built around how a farrier actually earns and spends: profit and National Insurance on a self-employed round, the vehicle decision that drives most of the deduction, the specific tools, forge and PPE costs HMRC accepts, how to handle shoes held as stock, and when VAT and Making Tax Digital start to bite.
How Tax Works for a Self-Employed Farrier
As a sole trader you pay Income Tax on profit, which is your total shoeing income minus allowable expenses. For 2025/26 the personal allowance covers the first GBP 12,570, then you pay 20% to GBP 50,270, 40% to GBP 125,140 and 45% above, with the personal allowance tapering away between GBP 100,000 and GBP 125,140 to create an effective 60% band. Class 4 National Insurance is 6% on profit between GBP 12,570 and GBP 50,270 and 2% above, while Class 2 NIC is settled through Self Assessment and protects your state pension record.
Scottish farriers pay Scottish Income Tax through six bands (19%, 20%, 21%, 42%, 45% and a 48% top rate) and carry an S-prefixed tax code, while National Insurance stays UK-wide. Welsh farriers have a C-coded tax code at rates currently matching the rest of the UK. If you also hold a PAYE job, perhaps shoeing alongside employed yard work, your code can end up wrong; run it through the tax code checker to make sure your allowance is being applied correctly.
The Vehicle: A Farrier's Biggest Deduction
A farrier round is built on driving. You might cover well over 15,000 business miles a year crisscrossing yards, and the way you treat that mileage usually makes the largest single difference to your tax bill. You have two methods and must pick one per vehicle, then stay consistent.
- Simplified mileage: Claim a flat 45p per business mile for the first 10,000 miles in the tax year, then 25p per mile after that. This covers fuel, insurance, repairs, servicing and depreciation in one figure. It is simple and needs only a mileage log, and it often wins for a high-mileage round.
- Actual costs plus capital allowances: Claim the real running costs of the van (fuel, insurance, road tax, MOT, repairs, tyres) restricted to the business-use proportion, plus capital allowances on the vehicle itself. This can beat mileage for an expensive or thirsty van, but it needs full receipts and a private-use split.
Either way, keep a mileage log showing date, destination yard and miles. Travel from home to a genuinely separate fixed base is ordinary commuting and is not allowable, but most farriers have no fixed base, so journeys from home to client yards are typically business travel. Because the numbers swing on this one choice, work both methods out once and run the result through the sole trader tax calculator before you commit.
Allowable Expenses for Farriers
An expense is allowable when it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. For a farrier the list is dominated by consumables, tools, the van and protective gear.
| Expense | What qualifies | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shoes and consumables | Steel and aluminium shoes, nails, studs, pads, hoof packing, clenches | Stock fitted in the year is an expense; unfitted stock is closing stock |
| Hand tools | Rasps, hoof knives, nippers, pincers, hammers, pritchels, clinchers, buffers | Replaced and sharpened constantly, fully deductible |
| Forge and anvil | Gas or coke forge, anvil, vice, tongs, gas and coke fuel | Larger items via Annual Investment Allowance |
| Mobile rig | The farrier van and fit-out, or mileage in lieu of running costs | Choose mileage or actual costs, not both |
| PPE and workwear | Farrier chaps, leather apron, gloves, steel-toe boots, eye and ear protection | Protective clothing is allowable; everyday clothing is not |
| Tool maintenance | Sharpening, regrinding, replacement handles and consumable abrasives | Routine running cost of the trade |
| Registration and CPD | Farriers Registration Council registration, training and qualifying courses | CPD that updates existing skills is allowable |
| Insurance | Public liability, tools and van cover, professional indemnity | Business insurance is deductible |
| Phone and admin | Business mobile, bookings, invoicing software, stationery | Claim the business-use proportion only |
| Accountancy and bank fees | Bookkeeping, Self Assessment, business banking | Fully deductible |
Tools, Forge and Capital Allowances
Small hand tools and consumables are normally claimed straight against profit as running costs because you replace them so often. Larger items with a longer life, such as a gas forge, a quality anvil, a vice or the van fit-out, are capital. Most farriers claim these in full in the year of purchase using the Annual Investment Allowance, which lets you write off qualifying equipment immediately rather than spreading it over years. Keep every invoice; HMRC expects to see what you bought and when.
PPE and Protective Clothing
Farrier-specific protective gear is genuinely allowable: leather or suede chaps, an apron, heat-resistant gloves, steel-toe boots, and eye or ear protection all qualify because they protect you doing the job. The line HMRC draws is between protective workwear and everyday clothing. A branded polo or ordinary jeans you happen to wear to work are not deductible even though they get ruined, because they are dual-purpose. Stick to claiming the genuinely protective items.
Shoes as Stock, Not Just an Expense
This is the detail farriers most often get wrong. Shoes and nails you have bought but not yet fitted at your accounting year end are stock, not an expense for that year. Under the accruals basis you record closing stock and only the consumables actually fitted reduce your profit. In practice you do a quick count of unused shoes and nails at year end and carry that value forward. It usually only shifts profit modestly between years, but getting it broadly right keeps your figures defensible.
Worked Example: A Farrier on GBP 52,000 Takings
Take a full-time mobile farrier with a busy private and livery-yard round, taking GBP 52,000 over the year and covering around 16,000 business miles.
Income: GBP 52,000 of shoeing and trimming fees
Allowable expenses:
- Mileage: 10,000 at 45p (GBP 4,500) plus 6,000 at 25p (GBP 1,500) = GBP 6,000
- Shoes, nails and consumables fitted in the year: GBP 7,200
- Tools, sharpening and replacements: GBP 1,100
- Gas, forge and anvil maintenance: GBP 900
- PPE (chaps, apron, gloves, boots): GBP 350
- FRC registration, CPD and insurance: GBP 1,300
- Phone, admin and accountancy: GBP 850
- Total expenses: GBP 17,700
Taxable profit: GBP 52,000 minus GBP 17,700 = GBP 34,300
Income Tax: GBP 34,300 minus GBP 12,570 = GBP 21,730 at 20% = GBP 4,346
Class 4 NIC: GBP 21,730 at 6% = GBP 1,304
Total Income Tax and Class 4 NIC: GBP 5,650 for the year, with Class 2 NIC settled alongside through Self Assessment. Note that the GBP 52,000 of takings is above the GBP 50,000 MTD threshold, so this farrier is in scope from April 2026 even though profit is well below it, because the test is on gross income.
For a farrier the tax bill is won at the anvil and in the van. Log every mile and capture every shoe and tool as you buy it, and the profit figure looks after itself.
VAT for Farriers
You must register for VAT once taxable turnover exceeds GBP 90,000 in any rolling 12-month period. A busy full-time farrier with a strong round can get within reach of this, so track your rolling 12-month takings monthly rather than waiting for the year end. Once registered you charge VAT on your fees and reclaim VAT on shoes, gas, tools and the van. The catch is your customer base: many farriers shoe private horse owners who cannot reclaim VAT, so adding 20% effectively raises your prices or squeezes your margin. Where your clients are mainly VAT-registered businesses, such as racing yards or large commercial livery operations, the impact is softer because they reclaim what you charge. Weigh that mix before considering voluntary registration.
If you ever earn money from a second self-employment, a part-time PAYE job or property income alongside the round, the multiple-income tax calculator shows how the streams stack and where the higher-rate threshold bites.
MTD for Income Tax: What Changes for Farriers
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment replaces the once-a-year return with quarterly digital updates and a year-end finalisation. The thresholds are based on gross income, not profit:
- April 2026: Combined trading and property income over GBP 50,000
- April 2027: Over GBP 30,000
- April 2028: Over GBP 20,000
For a farrier this means recording income and costs digitally as you go, rather than emptying a glovebox of receipts each January. Given how mobile the work is, the practical answer is logging mileage, fees and tool purchases on your phone between visits. Done that way, the lumpy mix of cash, card and bank-transfer payments from dozens of clients becomes far easier to summarise each quarter. Our guide to MTD for sole traders walks through what the quarterly rhythm looks like in practice.
Common Mistakes Farriers Make
Mixing mileage and actual van costs. You must pick one method per vehicle. Claiming 45p a mile and also deducting fuel and repairs for the same van will not survive scrutiny.
No mileage log. Without a record of dates, yards and miles, a high mileage claim is hard to defend. Capture it as you drive.
Expensing all stock. Shoes and nails bought but not fitted at year end are closing stock, not an expense, so count what is unused before you total your costs.
Claiming everyday clothing. Only genuinely protective gear (chaps, apron, gloves, steel-toe boots, eye and ear protection) is allowable; ordinary clothes are not, even when the job wrecks them.
Watching profit, not turnover, for thresholds. Both VAT and MTD are tested on gross takings. A farrier with modest profit but high turnover can be in scope without realising it.
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