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Setting Custom Set-Aside Rates for Tax Saving Suggestions
Setting Custom Set-Aside Rates for Tax Saving Suggestions

If you have employment income, rental income or a student loan, you'll need to adjust your set-aside rate for tax saving suggestions.

Updated over a week ago

If you’re self-employed and have property income, employment income or a student loan, you might need to set a custom set-aside rate.

If you have employment income

When you’re employed you pay tax through PAYE. This takes account of your personal allowance and tax bands before considering any self-employment income.

As such, you need to set aside a higher percentage of your self-employment income for tax than if you were only self-employed.

If you’re a higher rate tax payer (over £50k employment income), then you’ll pay 43% Income Tax/NI on any self-employment income you earn straight away.

If you’re a basic rate tax payer (salary between £13k-£50k), then you’ll pay 30% Income Tax/NI until you reach a total income of £50k, and then you’ll pay 43%.

If you have rental income

If you’ve got rental income, you’ll work out the tax you owe on this at the end of the tax year, just like you do with your self-employment income.

As such, when working out the set-aside percentage on your self-employment income, you should combine your rental income with your self-employment income when choosing the band.

For example, if you earn £25k self-employment income and £10k rental income, this gives you a total of £35k, where the recommended set-aside amount in the app is 30%.

If you have a Student Loan

If you’re self-employed, student loan payments are collected through self-assessment alongside Income Tax and National Insurance.

The bands are as follows:

  • Plan 1: 9% on earnings over £20,195

  • Plan 2: 9% on earnings over £27,295

  • Plan 4: 9% on earnings over £25,375

  • Postgraduate Loan: 6% on earnings over £27,295

Depending on your annual earnings, you’ll need to add a bit extra onto your set-aside percentage to account for the extra you’ll owe for your student loan repayment.

Watch out for payments on account

If you’re self-employed, HMRC may ask you to make payments on account if your tax bill is over £1,000 in a given tax year.

This means that your tax bill can be 50% higher than you expect as you have to pay 50% extra as an advance payment towards next year’s tax bill. If you’re saving as you go, you should have enough set aside for this. You can learn about how payments on account work here.

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