How much tax will I pay as a self-employed electrician?

For 2026-27, a self-employed electrician with £30,000 profit pays £4,531.80 in Income Tax and National Insurance. On £45,000 it is £8,431.80, and on £60,000 it is £13,888.60.

Those figures assume you live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, have no other income and get the full personal allowance. Scotland has its own Income Tax bands: see tax for self-employed trades in Scotland. The rates below are for the 2026-27 tax year, 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, as listed on GOV.UK on 16 October 2026.

The rates that apply

You pay two things on your profit: Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance.

• Personal allowance: the first £12,570 is free of Income Tax.
• Income Tax: 20% on £12,571 to £50,270, and 40% on £50,271 to £125,140.
• Class 4 National Insurance: 6% on profit between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above £50,270.
• Class 2 National Insurance: treated as paid if profit is £7,105 or more, so it costs you nothing.

Worked examples for 2026-27

At £60,000, the first £37,700 above the personal allowance is taxed at 20% and the last £9,730 at 40%. Class 4 is 6% on that £37,700 and 2% on the £9,730. These are examples only. Your own figures will differ.

Profit, not takings

Tax is worked out on profit: what your customers pay you, minus allowable business costs. For an electrician that means cable, fittings and other materials, van running costs or mileage, tools, testing equipment, public liability insurance, scheme membership and work phone use. GOV.UK's example is a turnover of £40,000 with £10,000 of allowable expenses, leaving £30,000 of taxable profit.

At £30,000 profit, each extra £100 of genuine business cost you claim saves £26: 20% Income Tax and 6% National Insurance. Above £50,270 profit it saves £42. Our guide to expenses for tradespeople lists what you can and cannot claim.

None of this is specific to electricians. A plumber, gas engineer, plasterer, roofer or landscaper with the same profit pays exactly the same.

If you work under CIS

If you do electrical installation for contractors, you are probably in the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). Contractors take 20% of your labour if you are registered, or 30% if not. Those deductions are advance payments towards the figures above, not an extra tax. If you have had more taken than you owe, you claim it back through your tax return. The sooner after 5 April you file, the sooner HMRC can repay you.

What this means for you

For the 2026-27 tax year, your bill is due by 31 January 2028. If it is your first year with a bill of £1,000 or more, you also make your first payment on account towards 2027-28 that day, half as much again. On £30,000 profit, that is £6,797.70 due on 31 January 2028. Our guide to payments on account explains it.

If your takings, before costs, were over £30,000 in 2025-26, Making Tax Digital (MTD) also starts for you on 6 April 2027. MTD does not change your tax rates. It changes how you keep records and report them, and your software shows a running estimate of your bill after each quarterly update.

Steps to estimate your own bill

1. Add up what customers paid you in the tax year, before CIS deductions.
2. Take off your allowable business costs to get your profit.
3. Take £12,570 off your profit. Multiply what is left, up to £37,700, by 26%.
4. If your profit is over £50,270, multiply the part above that, up to £100,000, by 42%. Above £100,000 of profit your Personal Allowance starts to shrink and a higher rate applies further up, so these steps understate the bill: use the self-employed tax calculator instead.
5. Add the two. Take off any CIS deductions to see what you still owe, or what is due back.
6. If this is your first year, add half the bill again for your first payment on account.

The free MTD check shows when MTD starts for you, and the trades section has more on CIS and tax for electricians and other trades.