Tax for private tutors: tutoring alongside a job, and what you owe
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 yearTutor on the side? Once you earn more than £1,000 a year from it, you must register with HMRC and file a tax return, even if your job already taxes you through PAYE.
Why is the bill bigger than you'd expect? Your job has usually already used your £12,570 tax-free allowance, so tutoring profit is taxed from the first pound. On £8,150 of profit alongside a salary, that's £1,630.
Want to check your own costs? See what you can claim as a tutor →
If parents or students pay you directly, or you take bookings through an online tutoring platform that does not deduct tax, you are self-employed for that income.
The test is gross fees before expenses. More than £1,000 of tutoring income in a tax year and you must register and file a return. Below £1,000, the trading allowance covers you and there is nothing to report.
If your fees are just over £1,000 and your costs are tiny — which is common for tutors — you can deduct the £1,000 trading allowance instead of itemising expenses. You cannot claim both. For many part-time tutors the trading allowance genuinely gives the better answer, and it is worth calculating both ways.
The reporting threshold has been announced as rising from £1,000 to £3,000, but no start date is confirmed on gov.uk. Work to £1,000 for now.
It makes a large difference to your paperwork and sometimes to your tax.
Direct clients. Parents pay you, nothing is deducted, and the whole fee is your turnover.
Tutoring platforms. You are usually still self-employed. The platform takes a commission, and your turnover is the gross fee the parent paid, not the net amount that reached your bank. Report the gross and deduct the commission as an expense.
Agencies that put you on their payroll. Some tuition agencies, and most schools running paid intervention programmes, operate PAYE. That is employment income and goes on the employment pages, not the self-employment pages.
You can easily have all three in one year. Keep them apart from the start; separating them afterwards is tedious.
Here is a part-time tutor for 2026/27 with a salaried job alongside the tutoring. The figures are illustrative.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Salary from employment (tax already deducted under PAYE) | £28,000 |
| Tutoring fees received | £9,600 |
| Allowable tutoring expenses (below) | £1,450 |
| Tutoring profit | £8,150 |
| Personal allowance available against the tutoring profit | £0 — already used by the salary |
| Taxable tutoring profit | £8,150 |
| Income tax at 20% | £1,630 |
| Class 4 NI — profit is below £12,570 | £0 |
| Total to pay by 31 January | £1,630 |
Total income is £36,150, which is below £50,270, so the tutoring profit is all taxed at the basic rate of 20%. If the salary and profit together had crossed £50,270, everything above that line would have been taxed at 40%.
The expenses break down as: working from home flat rate £216; textbooks, exam board specifications and past papers £340; tutoring platform commission £420; capital allowances on a tablet, stylus and visualiser £185; website and local advertising £120; DBS check and professional subscriptions £169.
Two things to notice. First, there is no National Insurance here: Class 4 is charged on your self-employed profit alone, not on salary and profit combined, and £8,150 is below the £12,570 starting point. Second, because the profit is above the Small Profits Threshold of £7,105, Class 2 is treated as paid at no cost, so the contribution record is still protected.
| What you can claim | What to watch |
|---|---|
| Working from home for lessons, planning and marking | Flat rate by hours per month in 2026/27: £10 for 25–50 hours, £18 for 51–100, £26 for 101 or more. Excludes telephone and internet, which are claimed separately on a business-proportion basis |
| Textbooks, workbooks, past papers, exam board specifications and subject resources | Allowable where bought for teaching. A book you would have read anyway is harder to justify |
| Tutoring platform commission and booking fees | Allowable. Remember to report the gross fee as turnover and deduct the commission, not to report the net |
| DBS check fees and renewals | Commonly claimed where the check is required for the tutoring work you do. Keep the receipt and the reason |
| Tutoring-specific insurance and professional body subscriptions | Allowable where relevant to the work |
| Laptop, tablet, stylus, webcam, headset, visualiser and second monitor | Capital items, claimed through capital allowances. If you also use them privately, claim only the business share |
| Online whiteboard, video conferencing and scheduling subscriptions | Allowable where used for tutoring |
| Printing, stationery, folders, laminating and postage of resources | Allowable |
| Travel to students' homes or a hired room | 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in 2026/27, then 25p. Travel to your ordinary PAYE workplace is not business travel and cannot be claimed |
| Room hire at a library, community centre or study centre | Allowable |
| Your own qualifications and CPD | Courses that update existing skills are usually allowable. A course that gives you a new qualification to move into a different line of work usually is not |
The marginal rate. It is the surprise that tutors write to us about, and it comes from the interaction with the day job.
Your tax code gives your £12,570 personal allowance to your salary. So when the tutoring profit is added, there is no tax-free band left for it. Every pound of tutoring profit is taxed at your marginal rate — 20% if your total stays under £50,270, and 40% on any part above that.
People reason that £9,600 of tutoring is "under the personal allowance" and therefore tax free. It is not. The allowance has already been spent.
Two practical consequences. First, set money aside as you go — a fifth of each fee into a separate account on the day it arrives, if you are a basic-rate taxpayer. Second, watch the £50,270 line if you are near it: a teacher on £46,000 who tutors up to £8,000 of profit will find part of that profit taxed at 40% rather than 20%.
One piece of good news: if the amount you owe is under £3,000 and you file online by 30 December, HMRC can usually collect it through your PAYE tax code over the following year instead of taking it in one payment on 31 January. For a part-time tutor that is often the most comfortable way to pay.
Probably not, and for most part-time tutors it never will.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is based on qualifying income: gross self-employment turnover plus gross property income, added together, before expenses. Crucially, PAYE employment income is excluded, along with partnership profit shares, dividends and pensions. So a tutor's salary does not count towards it at all.
Anyone with qualifying income of £20,000 or below is permanently outside Making Tax Digital. Our example tutor has qualifying income of £9,600, so she stays on the ordinary once-a-year Self Assessment return.
If your tutoring grows past those thresholds, or you also let a property and the two gross figures add up past them, you would join. Quarterly updates for standard periods are then due 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, they are cumulative rather than standalone quarters, and the final declaration stays on 31 January.
If you tutor a couple of hours a month and take under £1,000 a year, you are inside the trading allowance and have nothing to file. If your only tutoring is through an agency that pays you through PAYE, and you have no other untaxed income, you may not need a return at all — check HMRC's online tool before paying for help.
If you have one income source, use the trading allowance, and are comfortable with an online form, filing your own return takes an evening and costs nothing. A lot of tutors are in exactly that position, and we would rather say so.
Come to us when the tutoring is growing, when you have several income sources to keep straight, or when you simply do not want the deadline in your head.
Yes, if your tutoring income is over £1,000 gross in the tax year. Your school salary is dealt with under PAYE, but nothing has been deducted from the tutoring fees, so HMRC needs a return to collect the tax on them.
If your salary already uses your £12,570 personal allowance, yes — at 20%, or 40% for any part that takes your total income above £50,270. The allowance is given once, against your total income, not once per source.
Report the gross fee the student paid as your turnover, and claim the platform's commission as an expense. Reporting only the money that reached your bank understates your turnover, which matters for the £1,000 test and for Making Tax Digital thresholds.
It is commonly claimed where the check is required for the tutoring work you do. Keep the receipt and a note of why it was needed.
Only if your tutoring profit exceeds £12,570, at which point Class 4 is charged at 6% up to £50,270 and 2% above. It is charged on self-employed profit alone, not on your salary and profit combined.
Filed Tax files Self Assessment returns for tutors, including the employment pages where you have a salary as well, and the first month is free. If you would rather have it handled year-round, £25 a month covers Making Tax Digital quarterly updates, the final declaration, unlimited questions and deadline reminders. Send your figures and we will tell you the number first.
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.