Online tutors
Teaching over video to UK and overseas students.
Accountant for online and private tutors
Agency bookings, platform payouts and direct parents paying by bank transfer — organised into one set of accounts and a return filed on time.
- ICAEW/ACCA regulated
- Chartered Accountants
- Fixed monthly fees
- MTD-ready
- 4.9 on Google
Part of our guide to accountant for coaches.
Quick answer
Tutoring income is self-employed trading income, including agency and platform work and cash from parents. Resources, subject software, DBS checks, equipment and a share of home costs are deductible. Private tutoring by an individual can be VAT exempt in specific circumstances, which we check case by case.
On this page
Contents
Who this is for
Is this you?
Private in-person tutors
Home visits and local sessions.
Teachers tutoring alongside a job
PAYE salary plus self-employed hours.
Exam and admissions specialists
11+, GCSE, A level and university entry.
Language tutors
Platform students paying in several currencies.
Tutors building an agency
Subcontracting hours to other tutors.
Income streams
Everything we handle for you
- Hourly session fees from parents
- Agency-booked tuition
- Platform payouts (Superprof, Preply, Tutorful)
- Group and revision course fees
- Intensive holiday courses
- Resource and worksheet sales
- Recorded course and membership income
- School or college contract work
- Referral fees from other tutors
- Overseas students paying in USD or EUR
Sound familiar?
Problems you face, answered
How we help
The work we do for you
Self Assessment tax returns
PAYE salary and tutoring income combined and filed correctly.
Learn moreLimited company accounts
For tutors building an agency with other tutors.
Learn moreVAT for creators
Exemption, thresholds and recorded course sales reviewed properly.
Learn moreAccountant for online coaches
Our hub for coaching, courses and memberships.
Learn moreTax explained
How accountant for online tutors works
Tutoring is a trade once you teach for payment. Fees from parents, agencies, platforms, group courses and resource sales are all trading income, and you are taxed on the profit after allowable costs.
Claim what teaching requires: laptop, tablet, webcam and headset at the business proportion, subscription resources and past papers, subject software and whiteboard tools, printing, DBS checks, insurance, professional memberships, and the business share of home office costs.
Where you tutor alongside employment, the two are reported together but treated separately. Your PAYE tax counts against the bill, and only the tutoring costs are deductible — a distinction that catches out teachers filing for the first time.
The VAT exemption for private tuition is real but narrow: it applies to a subject ordinarily taught in school or university, given by an individual teacher acting independently. Tutoring delivered through a company, or coaching that is not an academic subject, generally falls outside it.
Tutoring income is seasonal, peaking before exams and falling away in summer. We set the tax reserve during the busy months so the quiet ones are not spent worrying about January.
Records are light: a session log per student, invoices or payment records, agency and platform statements, and receipts for resources. Keep them monthly and the year-end is a formality.
If the business grows into an agency, both the tax and the compliance picture change — employment status of your tutors, safeguarding, insurance and possibly VAT. We plan that step with you rather than after the first subcontractor invoice.
Source: Income Tax rates and allowances (gov.uk) · Self Assessment (gov.uk)
Worked example: a £29,000 tutoring year
- Direct parent-paid sessions
- £17,000
- Agency and platform tuition
- £8,000
- Group revision courses
- £3,000
- Resource sales
- £1,000
- Total income
- £29,000
- Agency and platform commission
- £1,900
- Resources, subscriptions and printing
- £1,300
- Equipment share, DBS and insurance
- £1,300
- Home office share and accountancy
- £1,500
- Taxable profit
- £23,000
- Income Tax at 20% on £10,430
- £2,086
- Class 4 NIC at 6% on £10,430
- £626
Illustrative example, not a client result. Illustrative only, using 2026/27 figures from our tax config and assuming no other employment income.
General information only, based on 2026/27 UK rules. Not personal advice. Speak to us about your circumstances.
Expenses
Online tutor expenses: what you can claim on tax
Allowable expenses for online tutors UK include the resources, subject software and equipment that make lessons happen, plus DBS and insurance costs specific to teaching. Tutoring often sits alongside online coaching or a teaching salary, so it is worth checking Self Assessment for creators for combining PAYE and self-employed income, and reviewing whether VAT exemption applies to your setup.
Usually claimable
- Laptop, tablet, webcam and headset (business share)
- Subscription resources and past papers
- Subject software and online whiteboards
- Printing, stationery and lesson materials
- Agency and platform commission
- DBS checks and safeguarding training
- Professional indemnity and public liability insurance
- CPD that maintains your teaching skills
- Business share of home office and broadband
- Accountancy and bookkeeping software
Usually not claimable
- Qualifications to enter a new profession
- Personal share of household bills
- Everyday clothing
- Travel from home to one regular teaching base
- Meals while tutoring locally
- Fines and penalties
Log each session and resource cost through the term using our creator expenses checklist so summer's quiet months are not a scramble.
How HMRC’s rules apply to online tutors
If you are self-employed
Self-employed costs must be incurred wholly and exclusively for your trade. If you use the £1,000 trading allowance, you cannot also deduct actual expenses against that same income. Equipment treatment depends on cash basis or traditional accounting.
If you run a limited company
A limited company deducts costs incurred wholly and exclusively for its business. Equipment may need capital allowances rather than an immediate expense deduction. Personal use or company-paid private costs can create a taxable benefit or director’s loan entry; company ownership is not a blanket deduction.
For separable mixed-use costs, such as a phone bill, claim only the identifiable business proportion and keep evidence. This does not make ordinary clothing or every dual-purpose purchase deductible. A receipt alone does not prove a business purpose: retain the brief, invoice or usage record too.
Costs to review for your work
- Business-use cameras, lighting, audio equipment and editing software
- Editors, thumbnail designers, virtual assistants and licensed music
- Travel to business shoots and the evidenced business share of home-working costs
Everyday clothing, ordinary grooming, personal meals, private gaming and fines are generally not deductible. Qualifying costumes or protective clothing and business-travel subsistence have different rules. Client entertaining is generally disallowed. Receiving a product from a brand does not automatically create an expense: record the income treatment separately and deduct only an allowable business cost.
HMRC: self-employed expensesHMRC: business travelHMRC: clothingHMRC: company deductionsHMRC: capital allowancesHMRC: creator income and gifts
Keep records alongside our creator expenses checklist, or discuss your costs with our bookkeeping team.
General UK guidance, not personal advice. The deduction depends on your facts and accounting basis.
General information only, based on 2026/27 UK rules. Not personal advice. Speak to us about your circumstances.
Structure
Sole trader or limited company?
Almost all individual tutors trade as sole traders, which also preserves the possibility of VAT exemption for private tuition. A limited company suits tutors building an agency with several tutors, where liability, contracts and retained profit start to matter more than the exemption.
£
Sole trader£46,111
Limited company£46,091
Illustrative estimate only. Uses the published 2026/27 tax configuration. Assumes a single-director company drawing all profit, with no Employment Allowance. Excludes expenses, student loans, pensions, other income, Scottish rates and individual circumstances. Not tax advice.
VAT & MTD
VAT and Making Tax Digital
VAT
Private tuition by an individual teacher in an academic subject can be exempt from VAT, which is why structure matters. Where the exemption does not apply — agency income, recorded courses, non-academic coaching — the income counts towards the registration threshold in the normal way.
Registration threshold: £90,000 · Deregistration: £88,000
Making Tax Digital
Making Tax Digital qualifying income is gross tutoring income before agency commission. Tutors with employment income should note that only the self-employed turnover counts towards the thresholds for April 2026 and 2027.
- April 2026: qualifying income above £50,000
- April 2027: qualifying income above £30,000
- April 2028: qualifying income above £20,000
General information only, based on 2026/27 UK rules. Not personal advice. Speak to us about your circumstances.
Diary
Key deadlines
5 October
Register for Self Assessment for the previous tax year
31 October
Paper tax return deadline
31 January
Online return, balancing payment and first payment on account
31 July
Second payment on account
Monthly accounting packages
Accountant packages for online tutors
Self-employed or limited company, choose the support that fits how you trade. We review income such as Hourly session fees from parents, Agency-booked tuition, Platform payouts (Superprof, Preply, Tutorful) as part of agreeing your scope.
Self-employed accountant packages for online tutors
Trading in your own name? Choose support for your personal tax return and, where included, bookkeeping and MTD Income Tax updates.
Annual fees use the upper limit of your selected band: Starter 1%, Complete 0.75%. Monthly payments are the annual fee divided by 12, excluding VAT. Starter does not include bookkeeping. Turnover above £1 million is quoted individually.
Self Employed Starter
For sole trader creators who just need their tax return done properly
£20.83
per month + VAT
£250.00 per year + VAT · Bookkeeping not included
- Your annual Self Assessment tax return, prepared and filed
- All your creator income streams covered: AdSense, brand deals, affiliates, tips and subscriptions
- Gifted products, PR trips and freebies declared correctly
- Allowable expense review so you claim everything you are entitled to
- Deadline reminders ahead of every filing and payment date
- Free basic tax advice by email through the year*
Self Employed Complete
For full-time self-employed creators who want their books kept for them
£39.99
per month + VAT
£479.88 per year + VAT · Bookkeeping included
- Everything in Self Employed Starter
- Monthly bookkeeping across YouTube, TikTok, brand deal and affiliate income
- Making Tax Digital for Income Tax quarterly updates, where required
- Payment on account planning so January never surprises you
- Sole trader vs limited company review as your income grows
- Quarterly check-in on your numbers and tax position
Limited company accountant packages for online tutors
Trading through a company? Choose support for company accounts, Corporation Tax and the director services included below.
Essential/Compliance
For creators who have just set up a limited company
From £45.83
per month + VAT
- Year-end company accounts for your creator business
- Corporation Tax return (CT600) and tax computation
- Confirmation statement preparation and filing support (excludes the Companies House filing fee)
- One director Self Assessment return (salary and dividends from the same company)
- Deadline reminders ahead of every filing date
- Free basic tax advice by email through the year*
Core/Complete
For full-time creators with brand deals and platform income
From £62.50
per month + VAT
- Everything in Essential/Compliance
- Monthly bookkeeping across YouTube, TikTok, brand deal and affiliate income
- Quarterly Making Tax Digital VAT returns
- Director payroll with RTI filing and pension submissions
- Quarterly review call on your numbers and tax position
- Gifted items, overseas payouts and payment platform reconciliation
Growth
For creator businesses with editors, managers or a team
From £75.00
per month + VAT
- Everything in Core/Complete
- Payroll for up to five team members, such as editors or assistants
Starting fees exclude VAT. Your turnover, records and agreed work determine the final quote. *Basic tax advice is free; technical work is quoted separately. MTD support applies where required.
See all fees and one-off servicesWant this off your plate?
Talk through your platform income, allowable expenses and next steps with a creator accountant.
Book your free creator tax callWritten and reviewed by
Waqas Sagar ACA FCCA FMAAT
Chartered Accountant with 18+ years' experience and founder of Accotax. Has served over 5,000 clients across London and the UK.
About Waqas SagarAccotax on LinkedIn Last reviewed: 2026-09-21
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
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