Money you earn from cleaning work on your own account is income, and HMRC expects to know about it once it passes a certain point. Three things decide whether you need to do anything about it this year: how much you earned, when you tell HMRC, and when you pay.

The £1,000 trading allowance

If the income from your cleaning work in a tax year comes to £1,000 or less, you don't need to tell HMRC about it or pay tax on it. This is the trading allowance, a fixed amount GOV.UK sets each tax year that covers small or part-time earnings before any tax rules apply.

Go over £1,000 and the whole picture changes. You now need to register with HMRC and report what you've earned, even though you can still deduct the allowance from your takings when you work out your profit.

Telling HMRC by 5 October

Once your cleaning income for a tax year is more than £1,000, you register for Self Assessment, the system HMRC uses for people who report their own income. The deadline for telling HMRC is 5 October following the end of the tax year in which you went over the allowance.

Missing this date doesn't stop you registering afterwards, but it can mean a penalty on top of whatever tax you owe, so it's worth doing as soon as you know you've crossed the £1,000 mark.

Paying by 31 January

Once you're registered, you complete a Self Assessment return each year setting out what you earned and what you spent on the business. The tax you owe for a tax year is due by 31 January after it ends, and this is also the date your return itself is due if you file online.

Someone starting out, or taking on their first booking as a self-employed cleaner, can read through the registrations in order on Starting a Cleaning Business, and check how HMRC tells the difference between self-employed and employed work on Employed or Self-Employed.

If you report your income through Self Assessment, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax changes how you send HMRC your figures once your income passes a set amount. It means keeping digital records and sending quarterly updates through compatible software.

Whether it applies to you depends on your qualifying income. That means your total income from self-employment and property before you take off any expenses.

When each threshold starts

• From April 2026, the rule applies if your qualifying income is over £50,000.
• From April 2027, it applies if your qualifying income is over £30,000.
• From April 2028, it applies if your qualifying income is over £20,000.

If your qualifying income sits below the figure for your year, the rule does not yet reach you. A lower threshold can still bring you in at a later date, so it is worth checking your income against each one as the years pass.

Once a cleaning business takes more than £90,000 in a rolling 12-month period, it has to register for VAT. This is not the same as a tax year. You check the total every month, looking back over the previous 12 months.

When the 30 days start

The 30-day registration window runs from the end of the month in which turnover passed £90,000, not from the day it happened. So if the threshold is crossed partway through a month, you still have until 30 days after that month ends to register (GOV.UK).

Missing the deadline does not cancel the requirement to register. HMRC can still require VAT to be accounted for from the date registration should have happened, backdated to when the threshold was crossed.

Turnover that counts

The £90,000 figure is based on taxable turnover, meaning the total value of everything sold that is not exempt from VAT, before any expenses are taken off. For most domestic and commercial cleaning work this includes the full amount invoiced to clients.

If you use your own car to get between clients, you can claim a flat rate for each mile. HMRC calls this a mileage allowance, and it covers fuel, wear and insurance together.

For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, HMRC sets this rate at 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles you drive in the year, and 25p a mile for anything over that (HMRC).

The rate applies to the miles you drive for the business, such as travelling between client homes. If you want to know whether the time spent travelling between clients also counts towards the minimum wage, that is a separate rule, covered on Travel Time Between Clients.