Self Assessment Tax Return in Bristol: A Step-by-Step How-To for Local Drivers

A self assessment tax return for a Bristol private hire driver is filed online with HMRC by 31 January, and most drivers complete the main return plus the short self-employment pages. This guide takes you box by box through those pages and shows where Bristol costs such as the Clean Air Zone charge, airport drop-off fees and council licence fees belong.

Most guides stop at "enter your income and expenses". That is easy to say and harder to do when your year includes CAZ payments, airport tariffs, station parking and a licence renewal. Here we fill in the pages for an invented driver, so you can copy the method rather than guess. If you are based in the city, our Bristol driver accounts page explains how we work with local drivers.

Key takeaways

• The return due by 31 January 2027 covers the 2025/26 tax year (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026), so the first-10,000-mile rate on it is 45p, not 55p.
• Bristol's Clean Air Zone charge, airport drop-off fees and parking are incidental journey costs, which HMRC says sit outside the mileage rate and can be claimed on top.
• A Clean Air Zone Penalty Charge Notice is a penalty, not a running cost, so leave it out of your expenses.
• Most private hire drivers with turnover below £90,000 use the short self-employment pages and may enter one expenses total in box 20.
• Keep a cost list that splits each Bristol payment into driver-side, vehicle-side and journey-side, because each one is treated differently.

What is a self assessment tax return?

A self assessment tax return is the yearly form you send HMRC to report income that has not been taxed at source, such as self-employed driving profits. HMRC uses it to work out your Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance contributions (NICs) for one tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April.

For a private hire driver the self assessment tax return has two parts that matter. The main form, called the SA100, collects your personal details and other income. The self-employment pages, called the SA103S (short) or SA103F (full), hold your driving turnover, expenses and profit. When you file online, HMRC's service adds the right pages after you answer a few set-up questions.

Which tax year does the return you file now cover?

A return filed between now and 31 January 2027 covers the 2025/26 tax year, from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. Use the fares, miles and receipts from that period only. Costs you paid after 5 April 2026, including any Bristol fees charged at the May 2026 rates, belong on next year's return.

According to GOV.UK's Self Assessment deadlines page, the online return and any tax owed for 2025/26 are both due by 11:59pm on 31 January 2027. The paper deadline was 31 October 2026, so a driver who has not yet filed should now file online. Your 2026/27 return, covering 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, is due by 31 January 2028.

This matters for mileage. HMRC's Business Income Manual entry on simplified vehicle expenses gives 45p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles up to and including 2025/26, rising to 55p from 2026/27, with 25p a mile after that in both years. Putting 55p on a 2025/26 return would overstate your claim.

Should a Bristol driver use the short or the full self-employment pages?

Use the short pages (SA103S) if your turnover was below £90,000 and your books run to a date between 31 March and 5 April. Use the full pages (SA103F) if turnover was higher, if your accounting date falls outside that window, or if you need to make more complex adjustments.

HMRC's SA103S form and notes for 2025/26 set that £90,000 turnover limit. Turnover means your gross fares and tips before the app operator takes its service fee, so check the gross figure on your annual statement. A driver who is close to £90,000 should also read our Bristol VAT threshold FAQ, because the same figure is the VAT registration test.

How do Bristol costs fit with the mileage rate?

The mileage rate replaces your car's buying and running costs, but not journey extras. HMRC says tolls, congestion charges and parking fees are incidental costs outside the rate, so a Bristol driver on 45p or 55p can still claim the Clean Air Zone charge, airport drop-off fees and parking, provided they were wholly for business.

The same BIM75005 guidance says the rate covers buying, running and maintaining the vehicle, including fuel, repairs, insurance, road tax and MOT. It names tolls, congestion charges and parking as journey costs that can be deducted separately. Your own driver licence is about you, not the car, so it sits outside the rate too. The vehicle licence fee is less clear-cut, and we explain our cautious approach to it in our guide to licensing costs on a tax return.

The box numbers come from the 2025/26 SA103S. The form gives no specific box for licence fees, so we use box 19 as a working convention. If your turnover is below £90,000 you can enter a single total in box 20 instead, but keep this split in your own records in case HMRC asks.

What does the Bristol Clean Air Zone actually cost a private hire driver?

Bristol City Council charges £9 a day for cars, taxis and private hire vehicles that do not meet the zone's emission standards. Euro 4, 5 and 6 petrol cars and Euro 6 diesel cars are generally not charged, so many newer private hire cars pay nothing. Check your registration rather than relying on the car's age.

Bristol City Council's charges and vehicle checker page lists the £9 daily charge and the exemptions above. GOV.UK classes Bristol as a Class D zone, which means private cars and private hire vehicles are covered, not just buses and taxis. The council says you can pay up to six days before travel or up to six days after entering the zone.

Miss that window and the council issues a Penalty Charge Notice of £120 plus the charge, reduced to £60 plus the charge if paid within 14 days. HMRC's Business Income Manual treats fines for breaking the law as not allowable, and we treat a CAZ penalty the same way. Paying the daily charge on time is both cheaper and claimable.

How do you file a self assessment tax return in Bristol, box by box?

Sign in to your HMRC online account, choose the 2025/26 self assessment tax return, and answer the set-up questions so the self-employment pages are added. Then complete the business details, turnover, expenses and profit boxes in order. Check the calculation HMRC shows you, submit, and pay by 31 January 2027.

1. Gather your 2025/26 paperwork: the annual statement from your driver app, bank statements, your mileage log for 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026, CAZ payment confirmations, airport and parking receipts, and Bristol City Council licence receipts.
2. Sign in to HMRC online with your Government Gateway user ID and select the 2025/26 tax return. In the set-up section, answer yes to being self-employed and say you had one business, so the self-employment pages are added.
3. Business details (boxes 1 to 8): enter "private hire driver" in box 1 and your business postcode in box 2. Answer boxes 5Q and 6Q about starting or stopping, put 05 04 2026 in box 7 if your books run to the tax year end, and leave box 8 blank if you use the cash basis.
4. Turnover (box 9): enter gross fares and tips for the year, before the app operator's service fee. Use box 10 only for other trading income, and do not use box 10.1 (the £1,000 trading allowance) if you are claiming real expenses.
5. Car, van and travel (box 12): add your mileage claim at 45p for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p after that, then add CAZ daily charges, airport drop-off fees and business parking. On actual costs, enter the business share of fuel, insurance, repairs and similar instead of the mileage figure.
6. Other expense boxes: put your accountant's fee in box 16, the business share of your phone in box 18, and the app service fee plus driver licence, DBS and knowledge test fees in box 19. Leave out any Penalty Charge Notice.
7. Total and profit (boxes 20 and 21): check that box 20 equals boxes 11 to 19, or enter just the total if turnover was below £90,000. The service then works out net profit in box 21.
8. Capital allowances and adjustments (boxes 23 to 31): leave boxes 23 to 25 empty if you use the mileage rate on your car, as you cannot claim both. Check box 31 shows your total taxable profit.
9. Class 2 and losses (boxes 33 to 37): if your profit was below £6,845 you can tick box 36 to pay Class 2 NICs voluntarily and protect your State Pension record. Fill in the loss boxes only if you made a loss.
10. Review the tax calculation, save a PDF copy, submit, and note the submission reference. Pay any balance by 31 January 2027, and check whether a first payment on account for 2026/27 is also due then.

If this is your first year, our first tax return guide for new drivers covers registering and getting a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) before you reach step 2. For a general walk-through of a driver return in another city, see our Liverpool step-by-step tax return guide.

Illustrative example: a Bristol driver's 2025/26 short pages

This illustrative example uses an invented driver and our own figures to show a completed self assessment tax return. Ayo drives a private hire car licensed by Bristol City Council and works mostly in north Bristol and South Gloucestershire. His car is an older Euro 5 diesel, so it is charged whenever he enters the zone. He uses the simplified mileage rate and has never claimed capital allowances on this car.

In 2025/26 his app statement shows gross fares and tips of £38,400 and service fees of £9,600. His mileage log shows 16,000 business miles. He paid the CAZ charge on 40 business days, kept airport and parking receipts, renewed his driver licence and paid for a DBS check.

Ayo also received one £60 Penalty Charge Notice after forgetting to pay the CAZ charge within six days. He leaves it out of his expenses. He does not add his vehicle licence fee separately, because we take the cautious view that the mileage rate may already cover it.

Now compare the same miles on his 2026/27 return, due by 31 January 2028. The first 10,000 miles move to 55p, so his mileage figure rises from £6,000 to £7,000. If everything else stayed the same, his taxable profit would be £1,000 lower. That is why mixing up the two years matters, and our tax calculator can give a rough idea of the bill either way.

Where do Bristol Airport drop-off and parking fees go?

Airport drop-off and short-stay fees paid on a business trip go in box 12 with your other travel costs, whether you use the mileage rate or actual costs. They are journey costs, not vehicle costs, so they sit outside the mileage rate. Keep the receipt or card record for each payment.

The airport sets and changes its own tariff, and it has raised drop-off charges more than once, so check its current prices rather than relying on an old figure. If a passenger reimburses the fee through the app, include that reimbursement in turnover and the fee in expenses, so the two cancel out properly. Drop-offs paid on personal trips, such as taking family to a flight, are not claimable.

How should you treat Bristol licence fees on the return?

On your self assessment tax return, claim the fees you actually paid in the tax year, using the cash basis. Your private hire driver licence, application, DBS and knowledge test fees are driver-side costs and can go in box 19 alongside a mileage claim. Under the cash basis, a multi-year licence is generally claimed in the year you pay for it.

Bristol City Council's fees and charges schedule from 1 May 2026 lists a one-year private hire driver licence at £140, two years at £209 and three years at £251, plus a £26 initial application fee. A one-year vehicle licence is £251. Those are the current fees, so they belong on your 2026/27 return if you paid them after 1 May 2026. For a 2025/26 return, use the amounts on your own receipts.

Bristol also asks for a tax check code when you renew a licence. We cover how that works in our Bristol taxi driver accountant update, so we will not repeat it here. In short, an unfiled or late return can hold up the code and your renewal.

Does Making Tax Digital change how a Bristol driver files?

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) started on 6 April 2026 for sole traders with qualifying income above £50,000. It falls to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. Drivers in it keep digital records and send quarterly updates, but the 2025/26 self assessment tax return is still filed the usual way.

According to GOV.UK's guidance on who must use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, qualifying income is your gross self-employment and property income, not your profit. A driver with £52,000 of gross fares can be in scope even with a modest profit. Our Making Tax Digital guide for drivers explains the quarterly routine.

Common mistakes and the penalty each triggers

• Using 55p a mile on the 2025/26 self assessment tax return. This overstates expenses, and HMRC can charge a penalty for a careless inaccuracy on top of the extra tax and interest.
• Entering turnover after the app service fee and then claiming the fee as well. This understates income, which is also an inaccuracy HMRC can penalise.
• Claiming fuel or insurance alongside the mileage rate. Those costs are already covered, so the claim is not allowable and would be reversed in an enquiry.
• Claiming a Clean Air Zone Penalty Charge Notice or parking fine. Fines are not allowable, and the council penalty itself is £120, or £60 if paid within 14 days.
• Filing after 31 January 2027. According to GOV.UK's penalties page, a late return triggers an initial £100 penalty, with daily penalties of £10 after three months, up to £900.
• Paying late. GOV.UK says late payment penalties of 5% of the unpaid tax apply at 30 days, six months and 12 months, plus interest.

Key terms

• SA100: the main Self Assessment tax return form.
• SA103S: the short self-employment pages, for turnover below £90,000.
• UTR (Unique Taxpayer Reference): the 10-digit number HMRC gives you when you register for Self Assessment.
• CAZ (Clean Air Zone): Bristol's charging zone for vehicles that do not meet emission standards.
• PCN (Penalty Charge Notice): the penalty the council issues if a CAZ charge is not paid on time.
• Incidental journey costs: tolls, parking and similar charges that HMRC says sit outside the mileage rate.
• Cash basis: recording income and expenses when money is received or paid, the default for most sole traders.
• Class 2 and Class 4 NICs: the National Insurance contributions linked to self-employed profits.

How UK Driver Accountants helps

UK Driver Accountants works with drivers only, and we are independent of any ride-hailing app. We prepare and file the self assessment tax return of private hire, taxi and delivery drivers in Bristol and across the UK, sorting CAZ, airport and licence costs into the right boxes. Fees are fixed, from £20 a month, so you know the cost before we start.

Our personal tax service covers every part of the return, and our pricing page shows the fixed fees. If you are still deciding between mileage and actual costs, read our Bristol mileage allowance checklist first. Hackney carriage drivers should use our Bristol hackney carriage tax guide, because black cabs cannot use the mileage rate.

File your Bristol return with the right figures

The self assessment tax return for 2025/26 is due by 31 January 2027, and getting it right comes down to three checks. Use 45p for the first 10,000 miles, add Bristol journey costs such as CAZ charges and airport fees in box 12, and leave penalties out. If you would rather hand it over, contact our team and we will take it from there.

Last reviewed 4 November 2026 by the UK Driver Accountants tax team.

This article is general information and not personal tax advice. Rates, fees and rules can change, so check the linked GOV.UK and Bristol City Council pages and speak to a qualified accountant about your own position. If HMRC has opened an enquiry or charged a penalty, we recommend professional representation.