Teaching on Tutorful?
However much you earn,we sort your tax.
Whether tutoring is a few hours around your degree or your full income, earning over £1,000 a year means HMRC expects a Self Assessment return. Chalkbooks files it for you, tracks every allowable expense, and keeps you ready if Making Tax Digital ever applies.
That's HMRC's trading allowance. Past it, a Self Assessment return is required, whether tutoring is your income or your side hustle.
Know what's recorded, what's due next, and what still needs you. Nothing else eating into lesson prep or lecture time.
Get ahead now and skip rebuilding a year of records when a deadline is already close.
Say hello to Chalky.
Ask a quick question about expenses, deadlines or your return, any time. Chalky gives you a straight answer, and loops in a real tutor-tax specialist the moment something needs a human.
Two different things: your tax return, and MTD.
Earn over £1,000 from tutoring and you almost certainly need to file a Self Assessment return every year, that's true whether you earn £1,500 or £45,000. Making Tax Digital is a separate, additional requirement that only currently applies once you're earning £20,000 or more. Chalkbooks handles both, but most tutors only ever need the first one.
If you do reach £20,000+, here's what changes
One return, once a year
Add up income and expenses, file a single Self Assessment by 31 January. Most tutors do it in a last-minute panic, with receipts scattered across inboxes and camera rolls.
Four updates, plus a year-end
Keep digital records and send HMRC four quarterly updates through approved software, then one year-end declaration. Paper and spreadsheets no longer count.
Income over £50,000 — mandatory now. This group is affected already.
Income over £30,000 — the threshold drops and pulls in many more tutors.
Income over £20,000 — drops again, bringing in most working tutors.
The date that matters isn't in April. It's 31 January.
Forget MTD for a moment. This is the deadline that actually applies to almost every tutor, whatever you earn, and it's the one people get caught out by.
That penalty applies the moment your return is late, not once HMRC catches up with you. Starting your return in autumn instead of panicking in January doesn't just remove the stress, it's the difference between claiming every expense you're entitled to and rushing through in a hurry.
Your tax year
Track income and expenses as you go. Far easier than reconstructing eight months of tutoring from memory.
Register with HMRC
First tax year earning over £1,000 from tutoring? You need to register for Self Assessment by this date.
File and pay
Your return is due, along with any tax owed. This is the date the automatic £100 fine kicks in.
Second payment
If HMRC asked for payments on account, the second instalment falls here, for some higher-earning tutors.
Most tutors we help start between April and October, not in a panic in January. The deadline doesn't move, it just stops being scary.
What do you actually need to do?
Select where most of your income comes from and enter a rough annual figure. We'll tell you honestly whether that's nothing, a Self Assessment return, or Making Tax Digital.
Your tax status
Covers HMRC's £1,000 trading allowance, the point Self Assessment becomes required, and the phased Making Tax Digital thresholds above £20,000.
No MTD yet, but you do need to file
Making Tax Digital doesn't apply to you yet. But earning over £1,000 from tutoring means you almost certainly still need to file a Self Assessment return every year, the part most tutors, especially students juggling this around a degree, find easiest to put off. That's what we handle.
Every income source, one calm view.
Platform payouts land on different days, in different amounts, taking different cuts. Chalkbooks pulls them into a single dashboard so nothing gets missed and nothing needs chasing.
Wherever your pupils come from
Then HMRC wants its share too.
We make sure that's the only cut you're paying — every platform commission logged as an expense, every allowance claimed, nothing overpaid. Teach across as many platforms as you like; it all lands in one tidy place.
A generic accountant makes you explain your work. We already know the expenses tutors nearly always forget:
Four filings a year. Zero effort from you.
Send your numbers
Snap receipts or connect your bank. Tutorful, MyTutor, Preply and direct clients, all in one place.
We categorise everything
Tutor-specific expense rules built in, so you claim what you're owed and nothing gets missed.
We file quarterly updates
All four MTD submissions to HMRC, on time, in your name, through approved software you never have to touch.
We finalise your year
Your year-end declaration replaces the old Self Assessment. You approve, we submit. Done.
One flat fee. No January panic.
Cancel anytime. Prices shown are illustrative placeholders for this prototype.
Starter
For tutors earning under £20,000, students and side-income tutors who just need their Self Assessment done properly.
Sorted
Everything a solo tutor needs to stay MTD-compliant.
Sorted Plus
For busier tutors who want it fully hands-off.
Common questions
Making Tax Digital doesn't apply to you yet. But if you earn over £1,000 a year from tutoring, HMRC still expects a Self Assessment return, and that's true whether tutoring is your main income or a few hours a week around lectures. That return is what most tutors in your position actually need help with, not MTD, and it's exactly what Chalkbooks handles.
If you're under £1,000 a year from tutoring, you don't need to register or file anything, so there's genuinely nothing for us to do yet. Above that, most tutors find the return itself isn't hard, it's finding the time and knowing what counts as an expense that's hard, which is exactly the bit worth handing off.
MTD isn't mandated for you yet, but the threshold is falling toward £20,000 this Parliament. Many tutors join early to skip the last-minute scramble, and to stop overpaying tax through missed expenses.
No. The published threshold is based on qualifying gross income from self-employment and property, before expenses are deducted.
No. You send your numbers however suits you; the approved MTD software sits on our side.
A qualified, HMRC-authorised agent submits on your behalf. You approve each filing before it goes.
No. They're illustrative placeholders included to make the homepage fully functional. Replace them with approved commercial pricing before publishing.
Get your tax return sorted before 31 January sneaks up on you.
Two minutes to tell us about your tutoring. No sales pitch, no obligation, a real person follows up within one working day.