Income threshold examples

Qualifying income — exactly what counts

Counts (gross, before expenses or allowances):

• Self-employment turnover (SA103S box 9 / SA103F box 15) — for each trade, aggregated;
• UK property income (SA105 box 20);
• Foreign property income (relevant SA106 box).

Does NOT count:

• Employment / PAYE income;
• Pensions (state, private, occupational);
• Dividends (including from your own company);
• Bank interest and savings;
• Partnership profit share (partnerships are out of scope, though a partner with separate sole trade or rental income can still be mandated on those);
• Trust or estate distributions (though bare-trust and interest-in-possession beneficiaries of property and trading income DO count, per HMRC);
• Capital gains;
• Income covered by the £1,000 trading or property allowance, or by rent-a-room relief, because it is not reported on the SA return.

Annualisation: if a business traded for less than 12 months in the reference year, HMRC pro-rates to a full 12-month equivalent (£10,000 over 5 months equals £24,000 annualised — not over £50k).

Joint property: only your share of gross rents (after agent expenses if you receive a "net" notice of share) counts toward your personal threshold. Spouses default to a 50/50 split unless Form 17 declares unequal beneficial ownership.

Non-residents: UK-source qualifying income still counts. UK-resident, non-domiciled: foreign income usually counts unless the remittance basis applies.