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Self-employed?

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Self-employed debt advice

Self-employed income calculator

If you’re self-employed, it can sometimes be difficult to work out exactly what your take-home pay is once you’ve covered all of your business costs. However, knowing your income is an important first step in dealing with any personal debts you might have.

A business budget will help show you how much money your business is making and how much you’re spending on business costs. It will also help you keep up to date with bills and, most importantly, help you work out how much money you can pay yourself as a wage.

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Creating a business budget

The easiest way to work out what's available to pay your personal household costs is to make a business budget. When you put together a business budget, you'll need to include the amounts you have to pay towards Tax and National Insurance (NI).

Our self-employed and sole trader income calculator is easy to use. All you need to do is enter the amount you get paid and what you spend on business costs. We’ll then work out your Tax and NI figures for you.

Our calculator uses standard Tax and NI calculations. If your situation is more complicated you should get specialist self-employed debt advice. 

Self employed and sole trader income calculator

Please enter numbers only!
The figures you've entered show that your business is running at a loss. Please recheck your figures and make sure you've included all your income.
  • 1£
    Read moreEnter how much you get paid, and how often. To work out how much you're getting paid we recommend you use an average over the past few payments you've received.Close
  • 2£
    Read moreAdd up all of your business costs and put the total here, e.g. the amount you spend on a van/car (inc. lease, petrol, tax, insurance and servicing), accountant fees, business insurance and so on. If you pay at different intervals read the Business Costs section below.Close
  • Results
  • Your monthly income before any costs is:£
  • Your monthly income after your business costs is: 
  • Your yearly income after your business costs is: 
  • Income Tax*
  • This is the amount of tax you need to set aside each month: 
  • National Insurance (NI)*
  • This is the amount of class 2 NI you need to set aside each month: 
  • This is the amount of class 4 NI you need to set aside each month: 
  • Your monthly take home pay:  
  • Or if you'd prefer to know it:
  • Weekly: 
  • Fortnightly: 
  • Four-weekly: 
  • Yearly: 
  • * The Tax and NI figures in the calculator are based on the information you've given us and are only based on a very straight forward situation. If you think you might have to pay something different or you're not sure how to pay then you should get expert advice, from an organisation such as Tax Aid.

Working out your business costs

If you run a business the chances are you'll have costs that you need to cover.

These might include things like:


  • The amount of money you spend on a van or car, including lease hire, petrol, tax, insurance and servicing
  • Accountant fees
  • Any business insurance

You’ll need to add up these costs and insert the total amount into the income calculator.

If you pay for things at different intervals (for example if you buy petrol every week but only pay your accountant once a year) you’ll need to change some of these figures so that they're all weekly, monthly or yearly. To do this, follow these calculations:


  • To change a weekly figure into a monthly one take the weekly figure and multiply it by 52 (the number of weeks in the year) and then divide this by 12 (the number of months in the year)
  • To change a monthly figure into a yearly one take the monthly figure and multiply it by 12 (the number of months in a year)
  • To change a monthly figure into a weekly one take the monthly figure and multiply it by 12 (the number of months in a year) and then divide this by 52 (the number of weeks in the year)

Money worries?

Find out how we can help you.

Get help now

Business debt help

If you’re having problems with self-employed or business debts and you live in England, Wales or Scotland, you should contact Business Debtline who:

  • Offer practical self-help to small business owners and people who are self-employed, empowering people to speak to creditors directly, and put solutions in place to resolve their business finance and debt problems
  • Can give advice on important business debts such as tax and business rates, and support if creditors take court action
  • Can help review business finances and decide the next steps to take. For example, they can advise on how best to recover debts from other people or how to close a business if that’s the right thing to do
  • Can also advise on personal debts such as credit cards and bank loans, and help people to budget better

If you live in Northern Ireland you should contact Advice NI's Business Debtline. They'll be able to advise you on how to deal with these things.

If you’re concerned that you're losing money or you want to know if your business is viable, visit:

Things to remember

  1. You need to save your income tax each month so you’ve got enough to pay your taxes at the end of the year.
  2. Make sure you’re saving money to pay your National Insurance. If you've reached retirement age you won't need to pay any National Insurance (class 2 or class 4).
  3. The Tax and NI figures in the calculator are based on the information you've given us and only show a very straightforward illustration. If you think you might have to pay something different or you're not sure how to pay, you should get expert advice from an organisation such as Tax Aid.