Tax for delivery and courier drivers: a plain guide
Reviewed by Rob Webb, practising accountant since 2015 · Last reviewed September 2026 · Figures are for the 2026/27 tax yearReviewed by Rob Webb, practising accountant since 2015 · Last reviewed September 2026 · Figures are for the 2026/27 tax yearDo you deliver for an app? You're usually self-employed, so you file a tax return. If the app or an agency takes tax off through PAYE, you're employed for that work instead.
How much tax will you pay? Nothing on the first £12,570 of profit, then 20% income tax plus 6% National Insurance. Most of your costs are mileage, at 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles. A courier taking £24,800 typically pays around £1,247.
Want to check your own costs? See what you can claim as a delivery driver →
Yes, if you deliver on your own account. Choosing your own shifts, using your own vehicle or bike, and being paid per drop or per hour without tax deducted all point the same way. The platform is your customer, not your employer.
You must tell HMRC by 5 October after the end of the tax year you started in. If you began delivering during 2026/27, register by 5 October 2027.
The trading allowance gives you £1,000 of gross trading income tax free. If you did a handful of shifts and your total gross earnings across the whole year were £1,000 or less, and you have no other reason to file, you do not need to register. The threshold is on gross earnings before costs, and it is £1,000 across all your self-employed work added together, not £1,000 per app. An increase to £3,000 has been announced but no start date has been confirmed.
If you deliver alongside a PAYE job, you still file. Your personal allowance is usually consumed by the employment, so delivery profit tends to be taxed from the first pound at 20%.
Here is a full year for a courier working across two food platforms and one parcel round, using their own car and claiming mileage.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross earnings, all platforms | £24,800 |
| Mileage: 10,000 miles at 55p | £5,500 |
| Mileage: 4,000 miles at 25p | £1,000 |
| Insulated bags and delivery kit | £150 |
| Mobile phone (business share) | £180 |
| Parking, tolls and congestion charge | £220 |
| Goods in transit and public liability cover | £190 |
| Accountancy | £195 |
| Total expenses | £7,435 |
| Profit | £17,365 |
| Less personal allowance | £12,570 |
| Taxable profit | £4,795 |
| Income tax at 20% | £959.00 |
| Class 4 NI at 6% | £287.70 |
| Total due | £1,246.70 |
That is payable by 31 January 2028. Profit of £17,365 is above the Small Profits Threshold of £7,105, so Class 2 National Insurance is treated as paid at nil cost and your contribution record for the state pension is protected without a weekly charge.
You have one business, however many apps you use. All of the gross earnings go into one turnover figure and all of the costs come off that one figure. You do not file three returns.
The part that trips couriers up is how the totals stack. Three platforms paying £9,000, £8,400 and £7,400 look small on their own. Added together they are £24,800, and it is the £24,800 that decides both your tax and your Making Tax Digital start date. Log in to each platform in April and download the full-year summary before the app archives it. Several show only a rolling few months on screen.
Watch the difference between gross earnings and payout, too. Where a platform deducts a service fee, an insurance charge or an equipment rental before paying you, your turnover is the gross figure and the deduction is an expense. Report only the payouts and your turnover is understated, which is the error HMRC most often picks up in this sector.
| What you can claim | What to watch |
|---|---|
| Mileage at 55p for the first 10,000 business miles, then 25p | Business miles only. The drive from home to the zone you wait in is usually private |
| Bicycle mileage at 20p, or motorcycle at 24p | Different rate per vehicle type. A bike courier claims 20p for every mile, with no 10,000-mile step |
| Insulated bags, thermal boxes and crates | Allowable in full where bought for the job |
| Platform service fees and equipment rental | Claim the gross fee deducted at source, not the net payout |
| Phone and mobile data | Business share only. A courier running the app all shift can usually justify a high percentage, but be able to explain it |
| Parking, tolls, congestion and clean air zone charges | Allowable. Parking fines and speeding fines are never allowable |
| Goods in transit and hire and reward insurance | Claim separately only if you are on actual costs. The flat mileage rate already covers vehicle insurance |
| Cycle maintenance, tyres, lights and locks for a bike courier | Allowable on actual costs. Not if you claim the 20p bicycle rate |
| High-vis, weatherproofs and safety helmet | Protective clothing is allowable. Ordinary clothes worn under it are not |
| Working from home for admin | £10 a month for 25–50 hours, £18 for 51–100, £26 for 101 hours or more |
Quarterly updates are cumulative, and couriers with lumpy seasonal work feel that hardest.
Under Making Tax Digital, each quarterly update covers from the start of the tax year to the end of that period, not the three months on their own. So the update due 7 February covers 6 April to 5 January — nine months of income, restated in full. If your November and December were three times your August, the February update is not simply "a busy quarter". It is a cumulative figure that has to be right for the whole nine months.
The practical consequence is that a mistake in the first quarter does not stay in the first quarter. It is carried into every later update until you correct it. Couriers who do their bookkeeping in a rush the night before 7 August often end up restating the same error three more times. Keep the records weekly. It is a ten-minute job weekly and a very long job quarterly.
Your start date depends on qualifying income — gross self-employment turnover plus gross property income, added together, before expenses — on the previous year's return.
The courier in the example has £24,800 of gross earnings for 2026/27. That is over £20,000, so they will join Making Tax Digital on 6 April 2028, with a first quarterly update due 7 August 2028. Until then they file an ordinary annual return.
Quarterly deadlines are 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, and the final declaration remains 31 January. Records must be kept in compatible software and retained for at least five years after that 31 January deadline. Under £90,000 of turnover you may report income and expense totals only, without category detail. HMRC pre-populates employment and PAYE income, pensions and state benefits at finalisation, so a courier with a part-time job does not have to re-key the employment figures.
Missing an update costs a point. Four points means a £200 penalty, and £200 for each miss after that. Points expire 24 months after the missed deadline if you stay below the threshold.
If you delivered for one platform, claimed mileage, and your whole year fits in a single spreadsheet, HMRC's free online return is straightforward and you should use it.
If your gross earnings across the year were £1,000 or less and you have no other income to declare, you have nothing to do.
If you are working through an umbrella company that deducts PAYE, you are not self-employed for that work and there may be nothing to file at all.
And if what you actually need is to challenge your employment status — because you think the platform should be treating you as a worker or employee — that is an employment law question and a tax agent is the wrong person. Take that to an employment adviser or a union.
You are taxed on profit, not on payouts. Your turnover is the gross earnings before the platform's deductions, and you then take off your allowable costs. In practice mileage is the largest deduction for most couriers.
No. The 55p and 25p rates apply to cars and vans. Bicycles are 20p for every business mile with no step down, and motorcycles are 24p. You can instead claim the actual running costs of the bike if they come to more, but you have to pick one basis and stay with it for that cycle.
Generally no. Ordinary meals are a private cost that you would have incurred anyway. There is a narrow allowance for genuinely occasional travel away from your normal working area, but day-to-day lunches on your usual round do not qualify.
You still report the income for that tax year, and you still get the full £12,570 personal allowance — it is not pro-rated. If the three months produced £1,000 gross or less and you have no other reason to file, the trading allowance covers it.
Both, usually. The summary shows gross earnings; the bank shows what is left after the platform's fees, and payments straddle month ends. Use the platform's gross figure as turnover and claim the fees as an expense, then check the difference reconciles to the fees and timing.
Only if turnover passes £90,000 in a rolling 12-month period. Very few single couriers reach that, but if you run several vehicles or subcontract to other drivers, check the rolling figure each month.
Filed Tax handles delivery and courier returns. You send the platform summaries and your mileage; we work out the figures and file. £25 a month covers all four Making Tax Digital quarterly updates, the final declaration, unlimited questions and deadline reminders, and the first month is free. Rob Webb reviews every return before it is filed.
Rob is a Certified Xero Advisor with a BSc from the University of Salford. Last reviewed September 2026 against GOV.UK guidance current at that date. This guide is general information, not personal tax advice. Figures are for the 2026/27 tax year and can change at each Budget — always confirm the current numbers on GOV.UK or ask us to check your situation.