Beyond Redundancy – the self-employment option

This is an article I posted on LinkedIn in light of all the redundancy announcements at the moment.

Feel free to add your own thoughts or advice at the bottom.

22 years ago I moved from employment to self-employment. Below are 10 things I wish I’d been told.

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Posted on 10 July 2026

Quickest Budget 2026 round-up for freelancers

There wasn’t much new in the Budget speech on 28th October 2026.

There were certainly no big changes to the tax system.

However there were some bits – clarifications and declarations of intent – which might be of interest to freelancers who read this blog.

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Posted on 02 November 2026

Confirmed! Increase in sole trader ‘trading allowance’ to £3,000

Thumbs up

The Budget speech on 28th October 2026 was rather dull.

I was expecting some major tax fireworks, and was prepared to update all my tax bathtub graphics.

However one big meaty clarification was the tripling of the so-called ‘trading allowance’ for sole traders.

The trading allowance has two advantages for smaller sole trader businesses, including those who do a bit of sole trader freelancing on the side:

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Posted on 02 November 2026

How’s HMRC’s Making Tax Digital going?

A red arrow pointing at the Making Tax Digital section on David's website.

For higher earning sole traders who’ve been going for a few years, this has been an interesting month.

The first ‘quarterly reporting deadline’ for the new Making Tax Digital process was on 7th August.

By that date affected sole traders had to press a button on their software to report total of turnover (business income) and total of business running costs between 6 April and 5th July 2026.

So how did it go?

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Posted on 08 September 2026

Moving kit around the EU? Carnets are going digital

It’s been a while since I posted anything Brexit-related. Partly because it’s all be too depressing.

Border check

However we need to enjoy glimmers of light where we can.

This glimmer comes from the digitisation of an annoying bureaucratic process.

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Posted on 21 July 2026

Sole trader? HMRC needs your views on its new tax proposals NOW!

HMRC have snuck out a consultation a few weeks ago just as you head off on your hols.

I’ve only just spotted it and big thanks to the finance journalist Iona Bain for posting about it on LinkedIn.

It’s almost as if HMRC doesn’t want us to read what’s being proposed.

It’s called ‘timely payments of income tax self assessment’, but what it’s really about is paying income tax sooner than at present.

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Posted on 17 July 2026

Tax when working in two countries

A stick person juggling a globe with a house in three different continents

For most people I meet on my finance for freelancers courses tax is fundamentally very simple. You live in the UK and you pay tax in the UK.

There is a small group who live in the UK and work in other countries as well. For most that’s simple too.

If you’re resident in the UK you pay tax on income wherever you earned it. (Just convert it back to sterling in your records!)

Then there are the Americans.

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Posted on 07 July 2026

New Freelancer Resource Hub now open

Screenshot showing Resource Hub

If you’ve been on one of my recent courses, you’ll know you have a lot of downloadable resources available to you forever.

I probably gave you a link to the Course Materials page, which now no longer exists!

But don’t panic. Everything has been moved to a new improved Resource Hub.

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Posted on 03 July 2026

Increase in HMRC mileage rates for 2026-27

A quick update after announcements from the Treasury.

I suppose this is good news, as a result of bad news!

A stick person driving a sports car

Update October 2026: Because of the US war in Iran and the rise in fuel costs, the government has raised the mileage rate for using your car for a business journey.

It is now £0.55p per mile (up from £0.45p) for the first 10,000 miles from the tax year 2026-27 onwards.

Any miles above 10,000 are 25p per mile for 2026-27, then 35p per mile from 6th April 2027.

Read more on gov.uk >

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Posted on 25 June 2026

Crackdown on late payments gathers pace

Stick person holding a very big clock indeed

“We are on a mission to make life easier for small firms by getting money moving faster through the economy by tackling late payments.”
Emma Jones CBE, Small Business Commissioner 

It’s good to see the government keeping up the pace on its late payment plans this week.

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Posted on 31 March 2026