3 – Tax and National Insurance (2025-26)
Last Updated on 7 April 2025
The Chancellor announced changes to employer’s national insurance at the 2024 Autumn Budget. These changes kick in from 6th April 2025.
‘Employer’s NI’ is the tax paid by employers for each employee. Read more about the changes here.
Although it has the same name (NI), this is separate from the NI contributions made by employees and self-employed people from their salary and profits respectively. These are unchanged for 2025-26.
Do you live in Scotland? There’s a different help sheet for you!
See Scottish Tax and National Insurance help sheet >
National Insurance
Employees and company directors pay their NI via the company PAYE system. This is Class 1 National Insurance and is a percentage of the salary, normally 8% (2025-26).
National Insurance for Sole Traders (self-employed):
Sole traders pay two types of National Insurance:
- Voluntary Class 2 – £3.50 per week in 2025-26. This is based on how many weeks of the previous tax year you were registered as a sole trader, not whether you had any income.
- Class 4 – 6% of profits (from the self-employed business) 2025-26 between £12,570-£50,270 (2% on taxable profits above £50,270)
Class 2 and Class 4 NICs are both taken through the tax return system at the end of the tax year.
Having a National Insurance record is important as it can entitle you to:
- Employment & Support Allowance (if sick)
- Maternity allowance
- Bereavements benefits (if you lose your spouse/civil partner)
- State pension
It’s not compulsory for sole traders to pay Class 2 NI. If your profits are at or above the Small Profits Threshold of £6,845 per year (2025-26), your NI record is credited automatically.
But if your profits are less than that threshold you can pay Class 2 voluntarily.
This can be useful for sole traders with low profits who are not making any NI contributions under PAYE elsewhere. It’s offered as a cheaper way for low-earning sole traders to add to their NI record.
You get a ‘credit’ to your NI record between the small profits threshold and £12,570. You don’t pay anything, but your NI record is ticked as if you have.
Above profits of £12,570 sole traders will pay Class 4 NI, which is 6% of profits (2025-26).
Making Voluntary Contributions (Class 3)
Class 3 are voluntary contributions, used to fill gaps and keep a record if you’re overseas or not working. The rate is £17.75 per week (2025-26)
You can only go back up to 6 years to fill gaps. Read more here:
https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/deadlines >
Note: You are allowed to be both self-employed and employed at the same time, but be careful that you are not overpaying National Insurance contributions, as your employer pays your Class 1 NICs through the PAYE system.
In some circumstances you can get a refund on NI contributions:
https://www.gov.uk/claim-national-insurance-refund >
You normally stop paying National Insurance when you reach ‘state pension age’.
Read more on gov.uk about this here >
Tax
Sole traders will pay income tax on the business’s profits, after you’ve taken into account allowable business expenses, pension contributions, capital & personal allowances.
Some key dates for sole traders (and other income tax payers)
- The income tax year runs 6th April to 5th April
- 31 January – deadline for getting information to HMRC about the previous tax year’s income and expenditure.
Also the deadline for paying tax owing from the previous year(s) AND half the forecast amount owing for the current tax year. (This is called ‘payment on account’. See my blog entry explaining what it is >) - 31 July – deadline for any outstanding income tax not paid by the previous January.
It can take a couple of weeks to get your Government Gateway log in. So don’t leave it to January!
NB: Tax reporting is going digital. See help sheet 4.
Limited Companies
Must register with HMRC for Corporation Tax and PAYE. Must use PAYE for directors and other employees. (Partnerships and sole traders must also operate PAYE system if they are directly employing anyone else.)
Corporation Tax is 19% for limited companies with profits less than £50K (2025-26). For companies with profits more than £250,000 the rate is 25%. There’s a sliding scale between £50K and £250K.
Find out more:
National Insurance Helpline – 0300 200 3500 (Weekdays only, 8am-5pm) www.gov.uk/personal-tax/national-insurance
www.gov.uk/claim-national-insurance-refund – if you think you’re owed some NI back
Income Tax Helpline – 0300 200 3300 (Weekdays 8am-6pm) | See full list of ways to contact HMRC
www.gov.uk/browse/tax
Help notes for filling in a tax return (gov.uk) >
www.gov.uk/understand-self-assessment-bill > – explains ‘payment on account’ too
www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates – pretty straightforward list of tax rates and thresholds
www.taxationweb.co.uk/ | www.freelanceuk.com/ – support for creative freelancers
www.litrg.org.uk – Low Incomes Tax Reform Group – charity with very good site
Unions will normally give advice to their members about tax status.
Useful HMRC (tax office) numbers for production freelancers:
– Freelance status,‘Lorimer Letters’/LP10 – 0300 123 2326 (option 1)
– IR35 enquiries – 0300 123 2326 (option 2)
Note: Income tax rates and thresholds for Scottish residents are different. (See separate help sheet >)
Posted on 29 January 2020