Why Most Sole Traders & Uber Drivers Overpay Tax (and How to Keep More of Your Money)

Every year, self-employed drivers and sole traders hand over more tax than they need to — not because they earn too much, but because of a handful of recurring bookkeeping gaps. Here's where the money usually leaks out.

Mileage no one logged

Unclaimed mileage relief can quietly cost a driver several thousand pounds a year. Logging trips weekly, rather than trying to reconstruct a year of driving from memory in January, is the single highest-value habit you can build.

Expenses that go unclaimed

• Phone and data costs used for work
• Vehicle repairs, fuel and insurance
• Equipment and a reasonable share of home-office costs

Personal and business money mixed together

When everything runs through one account, expenses get missed and profit figures end up wrong — which usually means paying tax on income that was never really profit.

Records left until deadline week

Late bookkeeping is how surprise tax bills happen. Reviewing your numbers monthly, rather than annually, turns January from a scramble into a formality.

None of this requires you to become a bookkeeper yourself — it just requires someone keeping an eye on it consistently, which is exactly the gap professional oversight closes.