Stop Self Assessment
Once HMRC has you in Self Assessment it keeps sending a notice to file every year until you tell it to stop, and an ignored notice means penalties even if there was no tax to pay. If your self-employment has ended, your rental income has stopped, or your income is all taxed through PAYE now, ask HMRC to take you out. One online service covers it, and this page walks through it, with the final return and the loose ends.
Tell HMRC the date you stopped trading through the stop Self Assessment service, signed in with the Government Gateway ID for your Self Assessment account. It closes the self-employment record and Class 2 from that date. You still file for the year you stopped in, with the cessation date in box 6 of the self-employment pages.
Rental income ended, savings and dividends are under the limits, no more untaxed income, the Child Benefit charge now paid through PAYE: ask HMRC to remove you, through the same service or the Self Assessment helpline, before the return for the year is due. HMRC checks the reason and confirms.
Tell HMRC the date you left. The nominated partner reports it on the partnership return too. You file the partnership pages for the part of the year you were a partner, then no more.
Since 2026/27 you can pay the charge through your PAYE code instead. Ring HMRC to leave Self Assessment and register to pay the charge through PAYE; you then stop filing.
Sign in to the stop Self Assessment service with your Government Gateway user ID and have your UTR and National Insurance number ready.
Choose whether you have stopped self-employment or simply no longer need to send a return, and give the date or the reason.
Confirm you will still send the return for the year you stopped in: the final part-year is always due, by 31 January 2028 for a year ending 5 April 2027.
Submit and keep the reference. HMRC confirms by email or letter and updates your account; if a notice to file for the next year has already gone out, ring to have it withdrawn.
File the final return. On the self-employment pages put the date you stopped in box 6, include everything up to that date, and claim any balancing allowances on equipment you kept.
If the last return set payments on account for the next year, reduce them online to what you now expect, often nil, so you are not paying in advance on income that has ended.
Due by the normal deadline for the year you stopped in. Nothing is pro-rated: the Personal Allowance and bands are the full year's, so a part-year of profit is often taxed lightly.
Class 4 is worked out on the final profit. Class 2 stops at the cessation date; if the final year's profit is under £7,105, you can pay it voluntarily for that year so it still counts towards your State Pension.
Keep business records for five years after the 31 January filing deadline of the final return. HMRC can open a check within a year of filing, or longer if something was missed.
If you still earn a little from occasional work, the trading allowance covers the first £1,000 without a return. Above it, or if you want to register a loss, you are back in Self Assessment.
Every screen from signing in to the confirmation, as a list or as it looks online.
One online service covers both: stopping self-employment, and asking to be taken out of Self Assessment when you no longer meet any of the reasons to file. Four screens, then a confirmation.
Nothing is prefilled here: the service asks for dates and reasons rather than figures.
Every box can be typed into, here or on the redrawn screens, and what you type stays in the box while you read the rest.
The service sits inside your Self Assessment account, so you need the Government Gateway user ID for it and your UTR.
Government Gateway user ID
The one linked to your Self Assessment account.
Unique Taxpayer Reference
Your 10-digit UTR, on every Self Assessment letter.
For self-employment, the date you stopped trading is the one HMRC uses to close the record. For anyone else, the reason you no longer need to file.
Business name
As it appears on your returns. Skip if you were never self-employed and are only asking to leave Self Assessment.
Date you stopped trading
The last day you worked for yourself. HMRC closes the self-employment record from this date and expects a final set of self-employment pages for the year it falls in.
Why you no longer need to send a return
Stopped self-employment, income now all taxed through PAYE, rental income ended, income under the limits, the Child Benefit charge now paid through PAYE. One reason is enough.
Stopping does not cancel the return for the year you stopped in. Three things to confirm.
You will still send the return for the year you stopped in
The record closes for future years only. The part-year up to the date you stopped still needs its return by the usual deadline, with the cessation date in box 6 of the self-employment pages.
Class 2 National Insurance stops from the cessation date
Nothing to pay after you stop. If the final year's profit is under £7,105, you can pay Class 2 voluntarily for that year to keep it counting towards your State Pension.
Reduce next year's payments on account to nil
If the last return set payments on account and the income has ended, reduce them to what you now expect (often nothing) so you are not paying tax in advance on income you will not have.
HMRC replies by email or letter, usually within a few weeks, saying which returns are still needed.
Email address for the confirmation
HMRC confirms by email and updates your Self Assessment account.
Declaration
The information is correct. Submit and note the reference; then diarise the final return.
HMRC confirms whether you still need to send a return for the year you stopped in: usually yes, for the last part-year of trading, and no after that. If you send the request after the return for the year has been issued, you still have to file it, so do this as soon as you stop.
Tell HMRC you have stopped being self-employed (GOV.UK)