Sector
Accounts for salons, barbers and beauty professionals, whether you rent a chair or own the building
For salon owners, chair renters, mobile therapists and aesthetic clinics.
What makes beauty different
Employed, self employed and retail under one roof
Salons mix employed staff, self employed stylists renting chairs and retail product sales, and each has a different tax and VAT treatment. HMRC looks closely at chair rental arrangements to check they are genuine self employment rather than disguised employment.
Tips must be passed to staff in full under the new statutory rules. Retail products carry VAT even where treatments push you over the threshold gradually, and mobile or self employed therapists now need clean digital records for Making Tax Digital.
Who we act for
Every kind of beauty business
Salons and barbers
Hair and barbering businesses with a mix of employed and chair renting stylists.
Nail and beauty bars
Treatment led businesses with retail sales alongside services.
Aesthetic clinics
Where some treatments are medical and exempt and others are standard rated.
Mobile and self employed
Individual stylists and therapists working from home or travelling to clients.
What we handle
Salons and the people who work in them
Salon company and sole trader bookkeeping with daily reconciliation from the booking and payment system. Chair and room rental agreements reviewed for employment status, because getting it wrong means back PAYE and National Insurance for the salon.
Payroll and tips compliance under the statutory allocation rules. VAT registration timing and whether the flat rate scheme helps a salon at your size. Product stock and retail margin tracked separately from service income.
Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital for self employed stylists, therapists and aestheticians, and advice on incorporating once the salon is established.
Packages
- Sole Trader Essentials £39 a month for individual stylists
- Sole Trader Plus £69 a month
- Company Core £99 a month for salons
- Company Growth £179 a month with payroll
Chair rental is an employment status question
HMRC tests whether a stylist genuinely runs their own business: own clients, own prices, own hours, own products. Where the salon controls those, the arrangement is likely employment, and the salon owes the PAYE.
Questions
Frequently asked
Is chair rental self employment?
It can be, where the stylist genuinely runs their own business: setting prices, keeping their own takings, choosing hours and buying their own products. Where the salon controls those things, HMRC is likely to treat it as employment.
When do I need to register for VAT?
When taxable turnover, services and retail combined, passes £90,000 in any rolling twelve months. Product sales count, which is what pushes many salons over sooner than expected.
How should tips be treated?
Tips must go to staff in full. Cash tips kept directly by staff are their own income to declare. Card tips paid through the salon usually go through payroll or a tronc.
Can I claim for products and equipment?
Yes, for anything used in the business: stock, tools, chairs, salon fit out and training that maintains your skills. Equipment usually attracts the annual investment allowance.
Should my salon be a limited company?
Once profits are consistently above the higher rate threshold and you do not need all of it personally, usually yes. Below that the extra admin often outweighs the saving.
Speak to someone who knows beauty
Book a free 30 minute call and we will tell you what matters for your business and what it would cost.
Or just pick up the phone
+44 7456 385980info@taxmesh.co.uk
