Mileage, PPE and uniform, DBS, training, NIC, VAT and MTD explained for self-employed domiciliary and home care workers across the UK.
Self-employed homecare and domiciliary care work is one of the most rewarding trades to be in and one of the easiest to get wrong at tax time. The income looks simple, often just an hourly rate across a handful of private clients, but the deductions are where carers lose money. You are on the road between visits, buying gloves and aprons by the box, renewing a DBS check, paying for mandatory training, and washing a uniform every night. Almost all of that is tax-deductible, yet most carers never claim it because nobody told them they could.
This guide is built around how a real homecare worker earns and spends: the mileage that dominates your costs, the PPE and DBS and uniform that come with the role, the question of whether you are truly self-employed at all, and the National Insurance and Making Tax Digital changes that affect when and how you report. Get the records right as you go and the annual return becomes a five-minute job.
Before anything else, be sure you are actually self-employed, because care work is full of grey arrangements. HMRC looks at the substance of the relationship, not the label on a contract. If an agency controls your rota, supervises how you work, pays a set hourly wage and provides the clients, you are very likely employed and should be taxed through PAYE, with tax and NIC deducted before you are paid. If you find your own private clients, set your own rates and hours, choose which work to accept, provide your own PPE and could send a substitute, you are genuinely self-employed.
Many carers do both: a PAYE role with an agency and private clients on the side. That is fine, but the two are taxed differently and you only report the private, self-employed work on the Self Assessment trade. If your tax code looks wrong because a PAYE care job and private work are colliding, run it through the tax code checker before you file.
As a sole trader you pay Income Tax on profit, which is your total care 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. Class 4 National Insurance is 6% on profit between GBP 12,570 and GBP 50,270 and 2% above, and Class 2 NIC is settled through Self Assessment. Most homecare workers sit comfortably in the basic-rate band, so the practical aim is simply to record every allowable cost and keep the profit figure honest.
Scottish carers 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 carers have a C-coded tax code at rates currently matching the rest of the UK.
Plenty of carers begin with one or two private clients alongside other work. The GBP 1,000 trading allowance is built for exactly this. If your gross self-employed care income for the year is GBP 1,000 or less, it is tax-free and you do not need to register for Self Assessment. Cross GBP 1,000 and you must register and report the full amount.
Once over the threshold you choose each year between deducting the flat GBP 1,000 trading allowance instead of working out actual expenses, or deducting your real allowable costs if they come to more than GBP 1,000. You cannot do both. Because mileage, PPE and DBS costs add up fast, most working carers are far better off claiming actual expenses. If care is a small side activity, see our guide to side-hustle income for how the allowance works alongside other earnings.
For most homecare workers, travel between clients is the largest single cost of the year, and it is fully allowable. The simplest way to claim is HMRC's flat mileage rate, which covers fuel, insurance, servicing, repairs and wear in one figure:
| Vehicle | First 10,000 business miles | Over 10,000 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Car or van | 45p per mile | 25p per mile |
| Motorcycle | 24p per mile | 24p per mile |
| Bicycle | 20p per mile | 20p per mile |
The journeys that count are those between clients during your working day, trips to collect supplies, and travel to training. The journey that usually does not count is home to a single regular base, treated as ordinary commuting. A carer doing 12,000 business miles a year claims (10,000 x 45p) + (2,000 x 25p) = GBP 5,000 of deduction, which on basic-rate tax and NIC is worth well over GBP 1,000 back. Keep a mileage log with the date, the journey and the miles; a note on your phone after each shift is enough. The sole trader tax calculator shows how much your mileage and expenses reduce the final bill.
An expense is allowable when incurred wholly and exclusively for the business. The carer's list is dominated by travel, protective and role-specific costs rather than equipment.
| Expense | What qualifies | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Business mileage | Driving between clients, to supplies and to training | 45p/25p flat rate, or actual running costs |
| PPE and consumables | Gloves, aprons, masks, hand sanitiser, shoe covers | Fully deductible, keep till receipts |
| Uniform and laundry | Branded tunics, work trousers, non-slip shoes, washing them | Specialist work clothing only, not everyday clothes |
| DBS checks | Enhanced DBS renewals required for the role | Allowable as a cost of trading |
| Professional registration | Bodies such as relevant care registers and memberships | Allowable where required for your work |
| Mandatory training and CPD | Manual handling, first aid, safeguarding, medication awareness | Updating existing skills is allowable |
| Insurance | Public liability and professional indemnity cover | Fully deductible business insurance |
| Phone and data | Work calls, scheduling and care-app use | Claim the business proportion only |
| Equipment and aids | Slings, gloves boxes, lift aids you buy for work | Annual Investment Allowance for larger items |
| Home-office admin | Fair share of broadband and a flat-rate working-from-home allowance | For rota, invoicing and record-keeping at home |
| Accountancy and bank fees | Bookkeeping, Self Assessment, business banking | Fully deductible |
Protective gear and branded uniform are squarely allowable because they are specific to the job and have no everyday use. Boxes of gloves, aprons, masks, sanitiser and non-slip footwear all count, so keep the receipts. You can also claim the cost of laundering a uniform: either the actual cost of washing it, or HMRC's flat-rate uniform allowance if you maintain it yourself. What you cannot claim is ordinary clothing worn under or instead of a uniform, even if you only wear it for work, because everyday clothes fail the wholly-and-exclusively test.
The private share of dual-use costs such as your phone, broadband and car must be excluded. Ordinary commuting from home to one regular workplace is not business travel. Everyday clothing is never allowable. Childcare so you can work, meals on a normal working day, and parking fines are all disallowed. And training that qualifies you for a brand-new trade, as opposed to keeping your existing care skills current, is treated as capital rather than a deductible expense.
Take a self-employed domiciliary carer with a round of private clients invoicing GBP 32,000 across the year, driving 11,000 business miles between visits.
Income: GBP 32,000
Allowable expenses:
Taxable profit: GBP 32,000 minus GBP 6,860 = GBP 25,140
Income Tax: GBP 25,140 minus GBP 12,570 = GBP 12,570 at 20% = GBP 2,514
Class 4 NIC: GBP 12,570 at 6% = GBP 754
Total tax and NIC: roughly GBP 3,268 for the year, plus a small Class 2 amount through Self Assessment. The mileage and PPE claims alone cut the bill by well over GBP 1,000 compared with reporting the full GBP 32,000. If you also hold a PAYE care job, add both incomes in the multiple-income tax calculator to see how they stack.
For a homecare worker the road is where the tax savings are. Log every mile between clients and keep the receipts for gloves and DBS checks, and you keep hundreds of pounds that would otherwise go to HMRC.
Carers are time-poor, so the system has to be quick. Keep a single business bank account or card for care income and costs so your figures are clean. Record each client payment as it arrives, even cash, and snap a photo of every receipt the moment you get it. Most importantly, keep a running mileage log, because that is the deduction HMRC most often asks to see and the one carers most often lose for want of a record. Five minutes after each shift is all it takes, and it turns the year-end return into a formality.
You must register for VAT only when taxable turnover passes GBP 90,000 in any rolling 12-month period, which a solo carer almost never reaches. Care and welfare services supplied by qualifying providers can also be exempt or outside the scope of VAT, which makes voluntary registration rarely worthwhile and sometimes impossible. In practice the vast majority of self-employed homecare workers never touch VAT. If your turnover ever climbs toward the threshold, take advice before assuming standard-rated registration applies, because the welfare exemption may change the answer entirely.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment replaces the once-a-year return with quarterly digital submissions and a year-end finalisation. The thresholds are based on gross income, not profit:
For a carer this mainly means recording income and mileage continuously rather than scrambling each January. The good news is that the habits that make MTD easy, logging each payment and each business mile as it happens, are exactly the habits that maximise your deductions anyway. Our guide to MTD for sole traders walks through what the quarterly rhythm looks like in practice.
Not claiming mileage. It is the biggest deduction in the trade and the easiest to lose without a log. Track every business mile from day one.
Assuming you are self-employed when you are an agency worker. If an agency controls your work and rota, you may belong on PAYE, and getting this wrong is the costliest error a carer can make.
Forgetting the small role-specific costs. DBS renewals, training, registration, gloves and aprons feel minor individually but add up to hundreds of pounds of deductions across a year.
Claiming everyday clothes or commuting. Only branded uniform and PPE count, and home to a single regular base is not business travel.
Not registering once over GBP 1,000. The trading allowance is a threshold. Cross it and you must register for Self Assessment, even if care is a sideline.
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