How does a PAYE job affect my delivery tax?

Your PAYE job normally uses up the £12,570 personal allowance through your tax code. That means your delivery profit sits on top of your employment income and is taxable from the first pound - usually at 20%, and at 40% if the combined total pushes you into the higher band.

This is the single most common unpleasant surprise for part-time drivers. A driver making £4,000 profit from evenings and weekends assumes it is inside their allowance and owes nothing; in fact they owe around £800 plus Class 4 National Insurance.

You file one Self Assessment return covering both. The tax already deducted through PAYE is credited against the total, so you are not taxed twice - you simply pay the difference on the self-employed part.

In JoltMile, log your job under Other income: your pay before tax, and the tax your payslips or P60 show was taken off. JoltMile then puts your driving on top of your wages in the same bands and credits the PAYE tax already paid, the same way your return does. Leave the personal allowance on. With a job logged, JoltMile keeps it on anyway, because your wages are what use it up.

If you would rather not log the job, switch the personal allowance off in Settings instead. The estimate then taxes your driving from the first pound, which is close enough for a basic rate job.