Amazon Flex drivers are self-employed delivery partners, paid per delivery block — so you pay Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance on your profit, not on the headline block earnings. Profit is your Flex earnings minus your allowable costs, and for a driver covering real distance the biggest of those by far is business mileage. For 2026/27 the first £12,570 of profit is tax-free, then Income Tax is 20% to £50,270, 40% above, then 45% over £125,140, with Class 4 NI adding 6% then 2%. Enter your figures above to see the bill with every step shown.
- You're taxed on profit = block earnings − allowable expenses, not on what Amazon pays into your account.
- Mileage usually wins: claim 55p per business mile for the first 10,000 miles, then 25p — this is normally your largest single deduction.
- It's mileage or actual car/van costs (fuel, servicing, insurance, depreciation), never both on the same vehicle.
- Class 4 NI: 6% on profit £12,570–£50,270, then 2% above; Class 2 is £0 but profit over £7,105 still earns a State Pension qualifying year.
- File and pay your 2026/27 Self Assessment by 31 January 2028.
How Amazon Flex delivery driver tax is calculated
When you sign up for Amazon Flex you tick a box confirming you're an independent contractor, and that's how HMRC treats you too: a self-employed sole trader running a delivery business out of your own car or van. Amazon doesn't operate PAYE for you, deduct any tax, or hand you a P60 — you report your own figures and pay the tax yourself through Self Assessment. The calculation runs in three stages:
- Work out profit. Add up everything Amazon paid you for your blocks across the tax year, then take off your allowable costs — overwhelmingly your business mileage, plus phone, parking and a bit of kit. What's left is your taxable profit.
- Income Tax. Your profit (stacked on top of any wage or pension) is taxed at 20%, then 40% above £50,270, then 45% above £125,140 — after the £12,570 Personal Allowance.
- National Insurance. Class 4 NI runs at 6% on profit between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above. Class 2 is £0, but profit over the £7,105 Small Profits Threshold is "treated as paid", so you keep your State Pension qualifying year.
Allowable expenses for Amazon Flex — and why mileage dominates
Flex is an unusually vehicle-heavy job: your earnings are essentially paid for driving parcels around, so the distance you cover is where almost all your deductible cost sits. HMRC lets you claim for that vehicle in one of two ways per car or van, and you stick with your chosen method for the life of that vehicle:
- Simplified mileage (the Approved Mileage Allowance): a flat 55p per business mile for the first 10,000 miles in the tax year, then 25p for every mile after that. This single rate is designed to cover fuel, servicing, MOT, repairs, insurance and the wear that grinds your vehicle down — so if you use it you cannot also claim those running costs separately. For most Flex drivers this method is both simpler and bigger, because the routes rack up serious mileage; all you need is a log of your business miles.
- Actual running costs: total up your real fuel, servicing, MOT, repairs, road tax, insurance and capital allowances, then claim only the business proportion (Flex miles versus personal miles). This only tends to win if you run a thirsty van or an expensive vehicle — and it means keeping every receipt and a careful split of business versus private use.
The mileage claim aside, the costs that are genuinely specific to running Flex blocks include:
- Phone and mobile data — the business share of the phone you run the Amazon Flex app on. The app is non-negotiable for accepting and routing blocks, so the work-use portion of your bill is allowable.
- Parking — the car parks and pay-and-display you use while making drops. (Parking fines are never allowable.)
- Delivery kit — a phone mount for the dash, a sat-nav, a trolley or sack truck for heavy multi-parcel stops, and hi-vis or weatherproofs.
- Goods-in-transit / hire-and-reward insurance and any toll or congestion charges incurred purely for the delivery work.
Important: if you pick the 55p/25p mileage method, fuel, insurance, servicing and depreciation are already inside that rate — don't claim them again on top. The expenses you add alongside mileage should be the non-vehicle ones above (phone, parking, kit).
The £1,000 trading allowance
If your total self-employed income for the year is £1,000 or less — say you only picked up the odd weekend block — it's usually tax-free and you don't need to tell HMRC. Above £1,000 you must register for Self Assessment, but you can still choose to deduct the flat £1,000 trading allowance instead of itemising. For anyone doing Flex with any regularity, the mileage claim alone dwarfs £1,000, so claiming actual expenses almost always leaves you better off — switch the "deduct for expenses" option above to compare the two side by side.
When do I pay?
Self Assessment runs on the tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 is "2026/27"). The return and any tax are due by 31 January 2028. If your bill tops £1,000 you'll usually also make payments on account — two advance instalments towards next year's bill, due 31 January and 31 July. Because Amazon pays your blocks in full with nothing held back, a sensible habit is to move roughly 20% of each payment into a separate pot so the January deadline doesn't catch you short.
How much should I set aside for tax on Amazon Flex?
Because Amazon Flex takes nothing off for tax, the safe habit is to move a slice of every payout into a separate pot the moment it lands. As a rule of thumb for 2026/27:
Set aside roughly 20–25% of your profit (your block earnings after mileage and expenses) as a safe cushion. You only actually owe tax on the profit above the £12,570 Personal Allowance, where the rate is 20% Income Tax + 6% Class 4 National Insurance = 26% — so a 20–25%-of-profit pot comfortably covers a basic-rate Amazon Flex driver, with a buffer for the payments on account that fall due in your first year.
| Yearly profit (after expenses) | Set aside on that slice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £12,570 | £0 | Covered by the Personal Allowance — no Income Tax or NI |
| £12,570 – £50,270 | ~26% | 20% Income Tax + 6% Class 4 NI on the part over £12,570 |
| Over £50,270 | ~42% | 40% higher-rate tax + 2% Class 4 NI on the part over £50,270 |
Those are the rates on each slice, so your effective rate across the whole profit is lower — the first £12,570 is always tax-free. A Amazon Flex driver with £25,000 of profit owes about £3,232 (£2,486 Income Tax + £746 Class 4 NI), which is only ≈13% of total profit. Set aside a flat 20–25% and you'll have plenty; the calculator above shows your exact figure.
There is no 15.3% “self-employment tax” in the UK. A lot of “how much should I set aside” advice online is written for US drivers, who pay a 15.3% self-employment tax on top of income tax. That does not apply here. A self-employed Amazon Flex driver in the UK pays UK Income Tax plus Class 4 National Insurance (6%, then 2% over £50,270) — nothing like the US system, so don't budget for it.
Making Tax Digital from April 2026
From 6 April 2026, drivers whose gross self-employed and property income is over £50,000 must keep digital records and send HMRC quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Note the trap: the £50,000 test is on gross earnings before your mileage deduction, so a high-volume Flex driver billing over £50,000 in blocks can be pulled into MTD even though their profit after mileage is far lower. Check where you stand with the qualifying-income checker.
Worked example
Jordan delivers for Amazon Flex full-time in their own car and uses the simplified mileage method. In 2026/27 their block earnings come to £29,000. They cover 18,000 business miles over the year, and have £500 of other costs (the business share of their phone, parking and a trolley).
| Step | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Block earnings | — | £29,000 |
| Mileage allowance | (10,000 × 55p) + (8,000 × 25p) = £5,500 + £2,000 | −£7,500 |
| Phone, parking, kit | — | −£500 |
| Profit | £29,000 − £7,500 − £500 | £21,000 |
| Income Tax | (£21,000 − £12,570) × 20% | £1,686.00 |
| Class 4 NI | (£21,000 − £12,570) × 6% | £505.80 |
| Class 2 NI | profit above £7,105 → treated as paid | £0 |
| Total to set aside | Income Tax + NI | £2,191.80 |
Look at the scale of the mileage line: that single £7,500 deduction knocks around £1,950 off the tax bill on its own (26% combined rate of Income Tax + Class 4 NI) and is more than seven times the £1,000 trading allowance — which is exactly why a working Flex driver keeps a mileage log and itemises rather than taking the flat allowance.
Frequently asked questions
Is an Amazon Flex driver self-employed for tax?
Yes. Flex drivers are independent delivery partners, and HMRC taxes you as a self-employed sole trader. You register for Self Assessment, report your own profit, and pay Income Tax and Class 4 NI directly — Amazon doesn't run PAYE or deduct anything for you.
How does the 55p/25p mileage allowance work for Flex?
For every business mile you drive on blocks you can deduct 55p for the first 10,000 miles in the tax year, then 25p for each mile beyond that. Keep a simple log of your delivery mileage and multiply it out — the calculator does the band split for you when you enter your mileage figure as an expense.
Can I claim mileage and my actual fuel and car costs as well?
No. You choose one method per vehicle. The 55p/25p Approved Mileage Allowance already covers fuel, servicing, MOT, repairs, insurance and depreciation, so if you claim mileage you can't claim those actual running costs too. Add up both ways and use whichever is bigger — for most Flex drivers mileage wins comfortably.
Do I have to pay Class 2 National Insurance?
There's no separate Class 2 bill to pay for 2026/27. Once your profit is over the £7,105 Small Profits Threshold, Class 2 is "treated as paid" — you owe nothing but still build a qualifying year towards your State Pension. Below £7,105 you can pay it voluntarily (£3.65/week) to protect that record. The Class 4 NI above is the one you actually pay.
What records should I keep as a Flex driver?
A log of your business mileage (date, route, miles), your Amazon Flex earnings statements, and receipts for phone, parking and any kit. If you ever claim actual vehicle costs instead of mileage you'll also need fuel, insurance, servicing and repair receipts plus your business-versus-private mileage split. Keep everything for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline.
How much tax will I pay on my monthly Amazon Flex block earnings?
Tax is worked out on your total for the tax year, not month by month — so multiply a typical month by 12 and enter that above. For example, £1,500 a month is £18,000 a year. Nothing is deducted monthly: you set money aside yourself and pay HMRC once a year through Self Assessment.
Does this calculator work if I live in Scotland?
Yes — choose "Scotland" in the calculator's "Where do you live?" option and it applies the Scottish Income Tax bands (19% starter rate up to the 48% top rate for 2026/27). Everything else is UK-wide and identical: National Insurance, the £1,000 trading allowance, mileage rates, registration deadlines and Making Tax Digital.
I do Amazon Flex alongside a normal job — how does that change things?
The same rules apply, but your salary uses up your tax-free Personal Allowance first, so Amazon Flex profit is usually taxed from the first pound at your highest rate — 20p or 40p in each £1. Put your salary in the calculator's "other income" box to see the real figure, and register for Self Assessment once gross block earnings pass £1,000 in a tax year.
Sources: Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances, Self-employed National Insurance rates and simplified expenses for the self-employed (gov.uk), verified 11 June 2026. Estimates for information only — not regulated tax advice.