Tax for hairdressers, barbers and beauticians
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 yearRent a chair or a room? If you keep what your clients pay you, you're almost certainly self-employed and responsible for your own tax.
How much tax will you pay? On £54,200 of takings, with £8,640 of chair rent and £7,410 of other costs, about £6,651 for 2026/27. Your takings are everything clients pay you, not what's left after the rent.
Want to check your own costs? See what you can claim as a hairdresser →
Usually yes, but not automatically. The words in the agreement matter far less than how the arrangement actually works.
You are self-employed if you pay a fixed rent or an agreed percentage for the use of a chair or room, build and keep your own client list, set your own prices, choose your own hours, buy your own colour and tools, and take the loss on a quiet week. The salon is your landlord, not your employer.
You are employed if the salon sets your hours and your prices, allocates clients to you, provides the stock, pays you whether or not the chair is busy, and would not let you send another stylist in your place. In that case the salon should be operating PAYE.
There are genuine in-between cases, and the risk runs both ways. A salon that calls everyone self-employed while controlling their diaries can face a bill for the PAYE it should have run. A stylist who assumes they are employed and never files can face penalties. If you are unsure, HMRC's online employment status checking tool is free and takes about ten minutes.
Many stylists do both: two employed days in a salon and three self-employed days renting a room. That is fine. The employed days go on the employment pages, the rented days on the self-employment pages.
If your total self-employed takings for the year are £1,000 or less before expenses, the trading allowance covers you and you generally do not need to register or file for that income. The test is gross takings, so £1,400 of takings with £600 of product costs is over the line.
The announced increase of that threshold to £3,000 has no confirmed start date on gov.uk, so £1,000 is the operative figure for 2026/27.
If you are over it, register with HMRC by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which you started.
A stylist renting a chair at £180 a week, working 48 weeks, in 2026/27.
| Takings from clients | £54,200 |
| Chair rent — £180 a week for 48 weeks | £8,640 |
| Colour, product and retail stock | £4,900 |
| Scissors, clippers, dryers, tools | £620 |
| Public liability and treatment insurance | £210 |
| Training courses and CPD | £480 |
| Towels, gowns, laundry, branded tunics | £240 |
| Phone and online booking system | £300 |
| Mileage — 1,200 business miles at 55p | £660 |
| Total expenses | £16,050 |
| Profit | £38,150 |
| Less personal allowance | £12,570 |
| Taxable profit | £25,580 |
| Income tax at 20% | £5,116.00 |
| Class 4 National Insurance at 6% | £1,534.80 |
| Total due | £6,650.80 |
The whole profit sits inside the basic rate band, which runs to £50,270 of taxable income in 2026/27, so none of it is taxed at 40%. Because the profit is above the Small Profits Threshold of £7,105, Class 2 National Insurance is treated as paid at no cost and the State Pension record is protected.
| What you can claim | What to watch |
|---|---|
| Chair or room rent paid to the salon | Get a written record from the salon each week or month. A verbal arrangement with no paperwork is the hardest expense to defend |
| Colour, developer, bleach, shampoo, backwash products | Stock you buy to resell is claimed as a cost of sale, and the money clients pay for it is takings |
| Scissors, clippers, dryers, straighteners, trolleys, styling chairs | Larger tools may be claimed as capital allowances rather than everyday expenses — worth asking about before you buy |
| Beauty consumables: wax, gels, lash adhesive, acrylics, files, tips | Anything you also use on yourself or family is not fully business — claim the business share |
| Public liability plus treatment risk insurance for waxing, lashes, needling | Personal accident and income protection cover for yourself is generally not allowable |
| Training and CPD that updates skills you already offer | A course that qualifies you in a brand new discipline may be treated as capital, not an expense. Keep the two separate |
| Gowns, tunics, aprons, branded workwear, towels and their laundry | Ordinary black clothes bought to look smart are not allowable, even if you only wear them at work |
| Barbicide, sterilising equipment, local authority treatment licence | — |
| Online booking system, card reader fees, website, Instagram advertising | Card machine fees are an expense; the gross amount the client paid is still your takings |
| Mileage to mobile appointments and to wholesalers at 55p a mile, 25p after 10,000 | Home to the salon is commuting and is not claimable |
Treating the money after the chair rent as your turnover.
If a stylist takes £54,200 from clients and hands £8,640 to the salon, it is very natural to think of the business as a £45,560 business. For tax, it is not. Your turnover is the full £54,200 that clients paid you. The rent is an expense you deduct afterwards. The profit is the same either way — but two important thresholds are tested on turnover, not on what lands in your pocket.
Making Tax Digital is tested on gross turnover. At £54,200 the stylist above is in from April 2026; at £45,560 they would not have been until later. VAT registration is tested on gross turnover too, at £90,000 over any rolling 12 months. A busy stylist paying a third of their takings in rent can cross £90,000 in takings while feeling nowhere near it.
The same applies where the salon takes a percentage of each client's bill rather than a fixed rent. If the client is your client and the salon takes a cut, the full amount the client paid is your turnover and the cut is your expense.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax replaces one annual return with four quarterly updates and a final declaration, kept in compatible software. Entry depends on your qualifying income — gross self-employment turnover plus gross property income, added together before expenses, on the previous year's return.
Employed salon income does not count towards qualifying income. So a stylist with £24,000 of PAYE salary and £28,000 of chair-rent takings is tested on £28,000, not £52,000.
Quarterly update deadlines are 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. Each update is cumulative — it covers the tax year to date, not the three months on their own. The final declaration is still due 31 January. Missed deadlines earn one point each, with a £200 penalty at four points.
Late filing is £100 immediately even with no tax to pay, £10 a day after three months up to £900, then further charges at six and twelve months.
If you are employed in a salon on PAYE, with no chair rent and no private clients, you have no self-employment to report and probably no return to file at all.
If your takings are under £1,000, the trading allowance covers you and there is nothing to do.
If you rent a chair, have straightforward figures and are comfortable keeping a spreadsheet, HMRC's free online return will do the job. There is no secret deduction that only an accountant can find. Once Making Tax Digital applies to you the software becomes compulsory, which is a real change — but for a single set of simple figures you can still handle it yourself.
If your dispute is really about employment status rather than filing, the useful first step is HMRC's status checking tool, not an accountant.
Yes. Rent paid for a chair, a room or a beauty couch is an ordinary business expense and comes off your takings before tax. Keep written evidence of what you paid and when — a weekly cash handover with no paperwork is difficult to prove.
Only protective and branded workwear — tunics, aprons, gowns, and their laundry. Ordinary clothing is not allowable even if you bought it purely for work and never wear it elsewhere.
What the client pays you is turnover, and what you paid the wholesaler is an expense. You are taxed on the difference, along with the rest of your profit. Do not net them off before reporting.
Training that keeps existing skills current is normally an allowable expense. A course that gives you a genuinely new qualification or lets you offer a service you could not offer before may be treated as capital instead. Keep the invoices and describe honestly what the course was.
Yes, if the self-employed takings are over £1,000. Your employed income and tax already deducted go on the employment pages, your chair-rent work on the self-employment pages, and the return brings the two together.
When your turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling 12-month period. Remember that turnover is the full amount clients pay you, before chair rent comes out.
Filed Tax handles Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital for hairdressers, barbers and beauticians, including chair renters. It is £25 a month for all four quarterly updates, the final declaration, unlimited questions and deadline reminders, and the first month is free. Send your figures, Rob Webb reviews them, and the return is filed. Call 020 3637 6060.
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.