Mobile beautician on £28,000

Sole Trader. Age 34. Pension preference: none.

Every figure on this page is computed at build time by the same engines that power the live salary–dividend split, take-home and SIPP optimiser calculators. Inputs come from a single CSV row; outputs come from the engines. No static lookup tables, no hand-coded numbers.

Net cash

£22,773

Pension

£0

Effective rate

13.7%

Marginal rate

26%

The decision tree for a mobile beautician at this income level

A mobile beautician thinking through "how should I structure this income for tax efficiency" hits the same five branches every time. Walk the tree for this exact scenario (gross £28,000 for 2026/27):

Is the engagement inside or outside IR35? Inside (umbrella) means no dividend extraction, no employer pension dodge, full PAYE deduction. Outside (Ltd Co) means access to the optimiser. This row models the sole-trader route.
Are you using the £12,570 Personal Allowance? Yes — fully. No other personal income is in play, so all £12,570 of PA is available to absorb the cheapest slice of structure-specific income.
Are you above the £100,000 PA taper? No — gross sits comfortably below the £100,000 trigger.
How heavily are you using the pension wrapper? Not at all — this scenario optimises for cash today, ignoring the pension wrapper. The pension contribution chosen by the engine for this row: £0.
What is the resulting net cash? £22,773. Net wealth including pension: £22,773.

For the second-order question — what would happen at a different profit level, a different age, or a different pension preference — the same engine drives the salary-dividend split calculator, the take-home (inside vs outside IR35) calculator, and the SIPP optimiser. Each one accepts the inputs of this row as a starting point.

The numbers, line by line

Turnover	£28,000
Taxable profits	£26,600
Trading allowance vs actual expenses	Actual expenses
Income tax	£2,806
Class 4 NI	£842
Class 2 NI (voluntary)	£179
Net cash (year)	£22,773
Net cash (monthly)	£1,898
Hours-equivalent at NLW (£12.21/hr)	1,865 hrs
Effective rate	13.7%
Same turnover as Ltd Co (no pension)	£22,144
Incorporate vs stay sole trader	£628 for staying sole trader

Why this scenario is different

Compared to the closest peer profile — Freelance writer at £30,000 — this scenario sits £2,000 lower on gross income. That moves net cash by −£1,406, the pension contribution by +£0, and the effective rate by −0.7%. The effective rate moves only modestly — both scenarios sit inside the same binding tax band. Taxable profits change from £28,500 to £26,600 (after the trading-allowance / actual-expenses choice).

Questions this scenario raises

What if I have rental income alongside this self-employment?

Add it to the `otherIncome` field of the calculator. Property income is taxed at non-savings, non-dividend rates (so stacks alongside salary in the band schedule). The first £1,000 of rental income can also be sheltered by the separate Property Allowance under FA 2017 s.16.

Do I need to file a Self Assessment for this income?

Yes, if the gross self-employment income is over £1,000 (the threshold above which the trading allowance no longer provides "full relief"). Even below that, you may wish to file voluntarily to claim losses or to maintain a tax-payer record. The deadline is 31 January following the end of the tax year (so 31 January 2028 for 2026/27).

What is the £1,000 trading allowance and when does it help?

The trading allowance (ITTOIA 2005 s.783A) lets a sole trader deduct a flat £1,000 from gross trading income in lieu of claiming actual expenses. It strictly beats actual expenses whenever expenses are less than £1,000. The engine picks whichever produces lower taxable profits — for this row the chosen route is shown in the comparison table.

Are the engine assumptions documented anywhere?

Yes — every constant lives in src/lib/tax/constants.ts with a source-URL comment. Every engine function is unit-tested against HMRC examples (180+ test cases). The full methodology is at /about and the per-engine assumptions are spelled out at the foot of each calculator.

Why does the page link to specific other professions?

The five linked pages at the bottom are computed by a similarity metric over (profession, income, structure, age band) — the closest five neighbours in that space, not the same five pages every row links to. The aim is a genuine cross-link graph rather than a star pattern that search engines correctly read as a pSEO signal.

Methodology

Income tax, National Insurance and Corporation Tax bands taken from HMRC's 2026/27 rates and allowances tables (gov.uk/.../income-tax; corporation-tax). Pension Annual Allowance and taper rules from Finance Act 2004 / 2023. Trading allowance per ITTOIA 2005 s.783A. Voluntary Class 2 figure (£179.40/yr = £3.45/wk × 52) from HMRC voluntary NI guidance.

Style: 2026/27 tax year throughout; figures rounded to whole pounds in the user-facing prose; effective rates computed as (deductions / gross). The voice is methodological — no first person, no claimed credentials, no marketing fluff.

This page is not personalised advice; for advice regulated by the FCA, consult an adviser registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. See the full disclaimer.