If you opened your first group at some point in the last year or so, there’s a date coming up that’s easy to miss: 5 October 2026.
That’s the deadline for telling HMRC you’re self-employed if you started between 6 April 2025 and 5 April 2026. It’s a quick job, it’s free, and once it’s done you can forget about it. Here’s what you need to know.
Do I actually need to register?
If you’ve earned more than £1,000 from self-employment in a tax year, yes. As a consultant you’ll almost certainly be over that, so the short answer is yes.
It doesn’t matter if you also have another job where tax is taken through PAYE. Your Slimming World income is separate, and HMRC needs to know about it.
If you’ve already registered and have your UTR number, you’re sorted – you can stop reading here.
How the deadline works
You need to register by 5 October following the end of the tax year you started in. Tax years run from 6 April to 5 April, which is where people get caught out.
Example
Sarah opened her first group on 12 January 2026. That falls in the 2025-26 tax year (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026).
- She needs to register with HMRC by 5 October 2026
- Her first tax return is due by 31 January 2027
- Any tax she owes is due by that same date
Now take Priya, who started on 4 May 2026. That’s in the 2026-27 tax year, so her deadline isn’t until 5 October 2027. She doesn’t need to wait though – registering now means one less thing to think about later.
How to register
- Go to gov.uk/register-for-self-assessment and choose the self-employed option
- Fill in your details – you’ll need your National Insurance number, the date you started, and a rough description of what you do
- HMRC will post out your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR). This is a 10-digit number and it usually takes a couple of weeks to arrive
- You’ll also get an activation code in the post for your online HMRC account. It expires, so use it when it arrives rather than putting it in the drawer
Keep your UTR somewhere safe. You’ll need it for your tax return every year, and we’ll ask you for it when you join MalgraBooks.
What if I’ve missed the deadline?
Don’t panic, and don’t put it off any longer. Register as soon as you can.
In practice HMRC is fairly flexible here. Provided your tax return goes in on time and you pay what you owe by 31 January, you’re unlikely to be penalised for registering late. The problems start when the return itself is late – that’s an automatic £100, and it goes up from there.
So the late registration isn’t the disaster. Ignoring it until January is.
While you’re at it
Registering is the easy part. The thing that makes January painless is keeping your records up to date from the start – your income, venue rent, mileage and everything else you spend on running your groups.
That’s what Pulse is for. You can log expenses and mileage from your phone as you go, and when it’s time for your tax return the figures are already there.
If you’re newly self-employed and want to see what’s included, have a look at our packages and pricing. And if you’re not sure whether you need to register, or what date applies to you, send us a message through our contact form and one of the team will point you in the right direction.
