Self employed National Insurance rates 2026/27

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For the upcoming tax year (running from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027), here is exactly what you will pay in self-employed National Insurance:

• Class 4 (Paid on your profits): * 0% on profits up to £12,570
  • 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270
  • 2% on profits over £50,270
• Class 2 (Voluntary payments): Mandatory Class 2 has been abolished. However, if your profits are under £7,105, you can choose to pay a voluntary flat rate of £3.65 a week to protect your State Pension.

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Taxes can feel incredibly overwhelming, especially when you are working for yourself and have to manage everything on your own. It is completely normal to feel a bit lost when HMRC updates their rules and thresholds.

The good news is that the rules for the 2026/27 tax year are largely unchanged from the previous year, with just a few small tweaks to the voluntary rates. Here is a simple breakdown of how National Insurance works for sole traders in the UK right now.

1. The Main Charge: Class 4 National Insurance

When you are self-employed, you don’t pay National Insurance on your total sales (your turnover). You only pay it on your profits (your sales minus your allowable business expenses).

The main type of National Insurance you pay is called Class 4. Think of this as the self-employed equivalent of the tax that gets taken out of a regular employee’s payslip.

Here is how it breaks down for 2026/27:

• If you make under £12,570 profit: You don’t owe any Class 4 National Insurance.
• If you make between £12,570 and £50,270 profit: You will pay 6% on this chunk of your earnings.
• If you make over £50,270 profit: You will pay the 6% on the middle chunk, plus just 2% on any profits above the £50,270 mark.

2. What Happened to Class 2 National Insurance?

In the past, almost all self-employed people had to pay a weekly flat fee called Class 2 National Insurance. The government recently scrapped this as a mandatory tax, which saves most sole traders a bit of money!

However, National Insurance is what builds up your qualifying years for the UK State Pension. Because Class 2 is gone, HMRC uses a threshold system to make sure you still get your pension credits:

• Profits over £7,105: You automatically get your National Insurance credit for the year for free. You don’t need to pay a penny of Class 2.
• Profits under £7,105: You do not automatically get a pension credit. To avoid a gap in your National Insurance record, you can choose to make a voluntary Class 2 payment of £3.65 a week (£189.80 for the whole year).

Tip: If your profits are very low, it is usually highly recommended to pay the voluntary £3.65 a week if you can afford it. It is much cheaper than paying “Class 3” voluntary catch-up rates later in life (which cost £18.40 a week in 2026/27).

3. How and When Do You Pay?

You don’t need to worry about sending HMRC a monthly cheque. Your self-employed National Insurance is calculated automatically when you fill out your annual Self Assessment tax return.

For the 2026/27 tax year, you will declare your earnings and pay your combined Income Tax and National Insurance bill by 31 January 2028.

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