Self Assessment for Delivery Drivers & Gig Workers: Your First Tax Return, Step by Step
By Tom Whitfield · Last updated 14 August 2026
If you earned more than £1,000 gross from gig or delivery work in a tax year, you must register for Self Assessment by 5 October after that tax year ends, then file a return and pay what you owe by the following 31 January. You'll declare your gross platform earnings (Uber, Deliveroo, Just Eat, Amazon Flex, Evri, Bolt — all of them added together), deduct expenses (usually mileage at 55p a mile) or the £1,000 trading allowance, and pay Income Tax plus Class 4 National Insurance on the profit. First-timers: watch out for payments on account, which can make your first bill roughly half as big again.
- Over £1,000 gross platform income in 2026/27 → register by 5 October 2027, file and pay by 31 January 2028.
- Declare gross earnings including tips — the figure before the platform's commission is deducted matters; commission is then claimed as an expense (or use the platform's net figure consistently and don't double-count).
- Mileage is usually your biggest deduction — 55p/mile for the first 10,000 business miles, then 25p (24p motorcycles, 20p bicycles).
- Multiple apps = one self-employment on your return, not one per platform — add all delivery income together.
- If your bill is over £1,000, HMRC adds payments on account — two advance instalments for next year, due 31 January and 31 July.
- From April 2026, gross self-employed income over £50,000 also puts you in Making Tax Digital: digital records + quarterly updates.
Step 1 — Check you actually need to register
Add up your gross income (before expenses and before the platform's cut is netted off your view of it) across every app you drove or delivered for in the tax year. Over £1,000 combined? You must register. Under it, the trading allowance covers you and there's nothing to file — though you can register voluntarily to pay voluntary NI or prove self-employed status.
Step 2 — Register and get your UTR
Register as self-employed on gov.uk (free, ~10 minutes). HMRC posts a 10-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference within about two weeks — you need it to file. Deadline: 5 October 2027 for income earned in 2026/27. Registering late risks penalties, and leaving it until January means your UTR may not arrive in time to file.
Step 3 — Gather your platform statements
Every platform produces an annual or monthly earnings summary — download them before you start:
| Platform | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Uber / Uber Eats | Driver app → Earnings, or the annual Tax Summary in the partner dashboard |
| Deliveroo | Rider app → Earnings; monthly invoices by email |
| Just Eat | Courier portal → payment statements |
| Amazon Flex | Flex app → Earnings; year summaries in the portal |
| Evri | Courier portal payment statements (include SE+ holiday pay) |
| Bolt | Driver portal → Tax summary |
Also pull together: your mileage log, phone bills, receipts for kit and insurance, and your P60 if you were also employed — the return covers all your income, not just gig work.
Step 4 — Work out profit (this is where the money is)
Profit = total gig income − allowable expenses. You choose between:
- Actual expenses — mileage at the flat rate (55p/25p car, 24p motorcycle, 20p bicycle), phone and data share, insulated bags, hire-and-reward insurance, parking, platform commission if you declared gross-of-commission income. Full list in the expenses guide.
- The £1,000 trading allowance — a flat deduction instead of actual expenses. Almost never wins for drivers: 2,000 round miles at 55p already beats it.
Estimate the resulting tax now, before you file, with the calculator for your main platform — Uber, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat, Amazon Flex, Evri or Bolt — they all show the working, so there are no surprises when the real return calculates it.
Step 5 — Fill in the return
File online through your Government Gateway account. The bits that matter for a gig worker:
- Employment pages — copy your P60 figures if you also had a PAYE job.
- Self-employment pages (SA103S) — business name can just be your own name; description "courier/delivery driver". One set of pages covers all your platforms combined.
- Turnover — your total gross gig income including tips.
- Expenses — under £90,000 turnover you can enter one combined expenses figure; keep the breakdown in your records.
- Student loan — tick the box if you have one: repayments are collected through the return on your total income (see what that costs).
HMRC's software then calculates Income Tax and Class 4 NI automatically — it should match what the calculators here showed you.
Step 6 — Pay, and brace for payments on account
Everything is due by 31 January 2028 for the 2026/27 year. If your bill exceeds £1,000, HMRC also charges two payments on account for 2027/28 — 50% each, due 31 January 2028 and 31 July 2028. So a first-year bill of £2,000 becomes £3,000 due in January (the bill + first instalment) and another £1,000 in July. This is the single most common first-return shock: set aside for it from your first month of driving — every calculator above includes a set-aside rule of thumb.
Deadlines at a glance (2026/27 income)
| What | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Register for Self Assessment | 5 October 2027 |
| Paper return | 31 October 2027 |
| Online return + payment | 31 January 2028 |
| First payment on account for 2027/28 (if due) | 31 January 2028 |
| Second payment on account | 31 July 2028 |
Miss the filing deadline and it's an automatic £100 penalty, growing from 3 months late; interest runs on late payment from day one.
Frequently asked questions
I drive for three apps — is that three businesses?
No. Delivery/driving across multiple platforms is one self-employment: one set of self-employment pages, all the income added together, all the expenses pooled. You'd only add a second business for genuinely different work (say, delivering by day and web design by night).
The platform already reported me to HMRC — is my return pre-filled?
No. Platforms send HMRC annual reports of your earnings, but you still declare everything yourself; HMRC uses the reports to cross-check. If your declared turnover is far below what the platforms reported, expect a letter.
Do tips need declaring?
Yes — cash and in-app tips are taxable courier income. Include them in turnover.
Can I file without an accountant?
For a straightforward gig-work return — one self-employment, mileage-based expenses, maybe a PAYE job — yes, most drivers self-file in an hour or two. Consider help once you have property income, VAT, or you're approaching the £50,000 MTD threshold, where quarterly digital reporting starts.
What if I missed a previous year?
Register now and tell HMRC about the missed year — a voluntary disclosure before they contact you means dramatically lower penalties. With platforms now reporting earnings every January, waiting doesn't make it go away.