The order to work through

The first registrations, in order

Starting a cleaning business brings a handful of registrations together, and most of them only apply once a particular point is reached, such as earning above a certain amount or taking on your first member of staff. Working through them in the right order means you're covered before you need to be.

  1. Tell HMRC you're trading

    Once your cleaning work starts bringing in money, you register for Self Assessment, the system you use to report your income and pay tax on it. HMRC sets a point your trading income needs to pass before registration is required, so this isn't something you do from your very first booking.

    This applies across the UK.

  2. Check whether the ICO's data protection fee applies to you

    Holding client names, addresses or keys on file brings most cleaning businesses under the rules the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) sets on paying a data protection fee. The ICO publishes a self-assessment that asks about your business and tells you whether the fee applies.

    This applies across the UK.

    The fee applies

    You register with the ICO and pay the fee that matches your business.

    An exemption applies

    You note why you're exempt and keep that record for your own files.

  3. Sort out insurance, PAYE, right to work and pension enrolment before anyone starts

    Taking on your first member of staff brings several registrations together at once. You arrange employers' liability insurance before they start work, register as an employer so you can run PAYE, the system you use to deduct tax and National Insurance from their wages, check their right to work in the UK, and enrol them into a workplace pension where the pension rules apply to them. Whether the person working for you counts as staff or as self-employed changes which of these you need at all.

    This applies across the UK.

  4. Register as a waste carrier if you take waste away yourself

    If a clean means removing waste from the client's premises yourself, you register as a waste carrier before doing so. Where the client disposes of their own waste, this registration doesn't apply to that work.

    This registration applies in England.

    You remove waste yourself

    You register as a waste carrier before you start doing it.

    The client disposes of their own waste

    This registration doesn't apply to that work.

The order can shift a little in practice, particularly if you take on your first member of staff before your own trading income reaches the point where Self Assessment registration is required.