How Do You Pay Tax If You Are A Self-Employed Hermes Courier?

If you are a Self-Employed Hermes Courier and wondering how you are supposed to file your tax returns, you will find detailed guidance in the following blog post. While we will mainly focus on helping you answer the question of how to file your tax returns as a Self-Employed Hermes Courier, we will also go into the details of the registration process, calculation of income and allowable expenses to help you file your tax returns.

How Do You Pay Tax If You Are A Self-Employed Hermes Courier?

If you are a self-employed Hermes courier, you will pay your tax under the self-assessment system for tax returns. This means that you will need to calculate your earnings as a self-employed Hermes courier, deduct your “allowable expenses” and then calculate your profits that will be taxed.

HMRC will tax your profits in the following ways: 

• your income will be taxed at 20%, 40% or 45%, depending on your earnings
• you will be required to pay Class 2 National Insurance; a flat rate charge of £3.15 per week if you earn over £6725 per year
• you will be required to pay Class 4 National Insurance; a percentage charge of 9% on your earnings if they are more than £12,570 per year

First of all, you need to make sure that you are registered with the HMRC so that a Unique Taxpayer’s Reference (UTR) number can be issued to you. The UTR number is a ten-digit set of numbers issued by the HMRC to those who need to pay their tax returns in the UK. it can also be found on the front page of the tax return (form SA100 or CT600). 

Self-assessment taxpayers will need to use this UTR number to file their taxes by 31st January using their Government Gateway ID and password. If this is the first time that you are filing a tax return, you will need to register with the HMRC Government Gateway user ID. 

Once you are registered, you can choose to pay your tax online or by taking a printout of the SA100 form, filling it in ink and submitting it to the HMRC at the following address:

Self Assessment

HM Revenue and Customs

BX9 1AS

United Kingdom

If you need help regarding filling in your self-assessment form, you can call the HMRC helpline at 0300 200 3310, from Monday to Friday, between 8 am and 6 pm.

Which Documents Do You Need To Pay Tax If You Are A Self-Emplyed Hermes Courier?

You will need the following documents when you fill in your self-assessment form to file your tax returns as a self-employed Hermes courier:

• your National Insurance number
• your ten-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR)
• your Government Gateway ID
• details of your untaxed income from the previous tax year (this includes income from rental income, dividends from shares, interest on savings, and capital gains)
• expense details related to self-employment or partnership status (receipts/invoices/bank statements)
• tax-free/relieved charity contributions
• P60 or other records with details of your income and paid taxes (if any)
• pension income and pension contributions
• redundancy payments or employee benefits

Once you have all the necessary documents ready you can fill in the SA100 form to pay your taxes through a self-assessment. 

Which Expenses Do You Dedeuct When You Pay Tax If You Are A Self-Emplyed Hermes Courier?

As a self-employed Hermes courier, you should deduct your allowable expenses from your earnings when you file your self-assessment tax returns to avoid overpaying your taxes. These are expenses that you would have incurred during the course of providing courier services that should be deducted from your earnings before an income tax rate is applied.

Allowable expenses for self-employed Hermes couriers include the following costs:

• Petrol or diesel
• Repairs, servicing and running the vehicle
• Road tax, vehicle insurance and MOT test
• Washing, cleaning and maintaining your vehicle
• Interest on loans taken to purchase your vehicle
• License and any other registration fees
• The cost of running your office (if you have one) or use of your home
• AA/RAC membership
• Radio hire
• Phone usage for business use
• Parking & toll fees

If you are not sure of how to calculate your earnings and allowable expenses to file your self-assessment tax returns, you can use the Self-Employed Ready Reckoner on the UK Government’s official website or an online calculator such as one provided by

Tax Scouts.

Conclusion:

The above discussion helps to conclude that if you are a Self-Employed Hermes Courier, you will need to file your self-assessment tax returns. To make sure that you file accurate information, it is advisable to keep track of your earnings and allowable expenses throughout the tax term so that you do not end up overpaying or underpaying your taxes.

References:

How to pay tax as a Hermes self-employed courier – TaxScouts

Courier tax return – help