Route 1
Sole trader and freelancer
Best if you invoice in your own name and need to turn turnover into profit, tax, and a realistic set-aside figure.
Pick your route
Route 2
Owner-manager / director
Best if the live question is how much to extract as salary, how much as dividend, and where Corporation Tax changes the picture.
Route 3
Growing turnover and admin risk
Best if revenue is climbing quickly and you need to think about VAT, bookkeeping discipline, and when structure starts to matter.
Core tools
New calculator
Sole Trader Tax Estimator
Turn turnover and allowable expenses into profit, tax, Class 4 NI, and a monthly reserve target.
New calculator
Dividend vs Salary
Compare a low-salary-plus-dividend plan against taking everything as salary.
Existing guide
Self-Employed Accounting
The plain-English guide to P&L, balance sheets, records, and allowable expenses.
Existing calculator
Dividend Tax Calculator
Useful when the question is not structure but the personal tax on the dividends themselves.
Existing calculator
Tax Drag Calculator
Still the best baseline if part of your income remains under PAYE or you are comparing blended income setups.
Existing calculator
Buy-to-Let Calculator
Relevant if you are also weighing personal versus company ownership for rental property.
Three things people usually miss
VAT is a business-model question, not just a threshold
The headline trigger remains £90,000 of taxable turnover, but the real issue is often whether your customers can reclaim VAT and whether your pricing has room to absorb registration.
Expenses discipline matters before tax optimisation
Good records and clear separation between business and personal spending usually produce bigger gains than jumping too early into company setup complexity.
Companies create a second tax layer
A limited company can lower some drags, but it does not make tax disappear. You are swapping one structure for Corporation Tax, dividend tax, payroll, and admin.