If you drive for Uber in the UK you are self-employed for tax, and HMRC expects three things: that you register, that you keep records, and that you file a Self Assessment return each year declaring your profit. The platform does none of that for you, whatever it handles on the employment-rights side. What follows is the shape of the obligation — registering, the UTR, the return, the choice between the mileage allowance and actual running costs, and the licensing costs a private hire driver carries.
Do you have to register as self-employed to drive for Uber in the UK?
Yes — driving on a platform as a private hire driver means trading on your own account for tax purposes, and HMRC requires you to tell them. You register as a sole trader, and there is a deadline tied to the tax year you started in: HMRC publishes it, it falls in the October after that tax year ends, and missing it is the most common first mistake a new driver makes. Register early, because the reference you get back arrives by post.
There is a small trading allowance HMRC publishes below which very low casual income may not need reporting. A licensed driver working shifts should assume it does not apply; check the current figure on HMRC’s own pages. And note that being self-employed here is a tax classification, not a comment on any argument about worker status — those are separate questions decided elsewhere, and whatever a platform does about holiday pay does not remove your obligation to file.
What is a UTR and how do you get one?
A UTR — Unique Taxpayer Reference — is the ten-digit number HMRC uses to identify you for Self Assessment, and you get it by registering for Self Assessment as a sole trader. It arrives by post after registration and you need it to file, which is the practical argument for registering when you start driving rather than when the deadline looms. A driver waiting on a letter in January is not in a comfortable position.
Keep it where you will find it again: with your National Insurance number and your Government Gateway login. It never changes, and you will need it for every return, every payment reference and every conversation with an accountant for as long as you are self-employed.
What does the platform do for you, and what does it not?
It gives you statements of what it paid; it does not deal with your tax. That is the whole division, and it catches drivers who came from PAYE employment where tax simply happened. There is no withholding on your payouts, no P60 for this income, and nobody upstream setting money aside for you. Every pound that arrives is gross, and part of it was never yours.
What a platform typically provides is a periodic statement and some annual summary of what it paid and deducted. Download those and keep them — but do not treat a summary as your accounts. It sees only its own side of your business, it knows nothing about the other app you drive for, and its definition of earnings is its own. One genuine complication: how fares, commissions and VAT flow between platform, driver and passenger in the UK private hire market has changed in recent years and can differ between companies, which affects how your statements read. That is a question for your own documents and your own accountant.
Mileage allowance or actual running costs — which should you use?
You choose one method per vehicle and generally stay with it for that vehicle, so understand both before the first return. The simplified method uses HMRC’s approved mileage rates — the AMAP structure, with one rate for business miles up to an annual threshold and a lower rate beyond it, both published by HMRC and both subject to change. Multiply business miles by the applicable rate and that is your vehicle deduction, covering fuel, servicing, insurance, repairs and depreciation in one figure.
The actual-cost method claims the business proportion of what the car genuinely cost: petrol or charging, insurance, road tax, servicing, tyres, repairs, plus capital allowances on the vehicle. It needs every receipt and a defensible business-use proportion, and it can win for an expensive, heavily used or electric vehicle. Either way the mileage log does the work. Note that the vehicle deduction covers running the car — parking on a job, and congestion or clean-air charges incurred while working, are generally considered separately, while fines are not deductible at all. Take current figures from HMRC.
What licensing and running costs can a private hire driver claim?
The costs you carry specifically to be allowed to do the job — which for a licensed private hire driver is a meaningful list, and one that is frequently forgotten because the payments are annual or multi-year and fall outside the weekly rhythm of record-keeping. Dig them out of your bank statements if you did not record them at the time.
The usual test applies to every line: the cost must be incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade, and where something serves both business and private life you claim the business share with a method you can explain. Check HMRC’s guidance for the categories that matter most to you, because eligibility details change.
- Private hire driver and vehicle licence fees, and the licensing authority’s renewals
- The enhanced background check and any medical required for licensing
- Private hire insurance, and breakdown cover attributable to the business
- MOT, servicing and repairs — under the actual-cost method only
- The business share of your phone and data plan
- Vehicle cleaning, and in-car equipment such as a mount, charger or dashcam
- Accountancy fees, and the record-keeping software you pay for
What about VAT, and what about Making Tax Digital?
Both are threshold questions, and both have moved — so treat them as things to check rather than assume. VAT registration becomes compulsory when taxable turnover passes a threshold HMRC publishes, and the private hire sector has had an unusual few years on how VAT applies between platforms, drivers and passengers. If your turnover is anywhere near it, or your statements mention VAT at all, that is an accountant’s question rather than a forum one.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is HMRC’s move toward digital records and periodic updates for the self-employed, phased in by income level. The direction is settled even where dates are not: HMRC expects records kept digitally and submitted through compatible software. A driver keeping mileage, income and expenses in an app is already most of the way there; a driver keeping them in a carrier bag is not.
What should you start recording today?
Business mileage, income per platform, and every business cost with its receipt — starting now rather than at the year end, because mileage is the one thing that cannot be reconstructed. A distance not recorded on the day is a number you can only estimate, and an estimated mileage claim is the weakest line on a return. Income and expenses can at least be dug out of bank statements, painfully.
BrewGig does the recording end for a UK driver: drives detected automatically in the background on Pro and above with route and endpoints, expenses with receipts attached, and a UK tax engine estimating against Self Assessment and the SA103S self-employment pages on the real April-to-April year. BrewGig is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or partnered with any platform mentioned here; Uber and all other platform names are the trademarks of their respective owners, and what any of them pays, charges or reports is theirs to state — read your own statements and HMRC’s current guidance.