Security Workers

You can get tax relief on your SIA licence costs along side your travel and mileage expense claim, regardless of whether you're employed full-time in the industry or running your own firm as a self-employed Security Worker. You'll renew your SIA licence every 3 years, but tax refunds can be claimed for up to 4-years back dated, so there's no reason to miss out if you haven't claimed before.

Travel to temporary workplaces, laundry costs for work uniform, the application and renewal fees for SIA licence. The rules for security officer tax rebates allow you to claim tax back on expenses over the last 4-years.

HMRC will never issue your refund without some proof of what you have actually spent. This is what you will require to make a full tax refund claim: A list of the all places you've travelled to work: Most tax refunds have some work travel costs included, so this is important. We'll also need to know how long you were at each of your workplaces. Exact dates and locations won’t always matter, as we can often work them out for you. Just give as us much detail as you possibly can. Receipts for expenses: Any time you’re using your own cash to buy the essentials of your work, you could claim a tax refund. This could mean laundry costs for your uniform or the application and renewal fees for your SIA licence, to name only a couple. Keeping good records about these expenses is the key to getting back what you’re owed. Contract of employment: It’s all about proving you are owed tax back, so you’ll need to show details of every job you’ve had during the period of your claim. Copy of your photo ID: A driving licence or passport would be ideal. Proof of address: Utility bills or bank statements work well for this. Wage slips reaching up to 4-years back: Even if you’ve never claimed before, it may not be too late to get your overpaid tax back from previous years. Other supporting documents: We’re talking about things like MOT certificates to support your mileage expenses, P60 form, P45 etcs. Don’t forget your paperwork from previous years, if you haven’t claimed your refund for those years as of now. If you don't already have a PTA (Personal Tax Account), we at ZippTax will show you how to get one set up.  PTAs don't cost anything, and they're a great way to keep all your tax information safely in one place. 

HMRC only wants you to pay the tax you owe on your earnings. When you’re paying for certain types of work costs from your own pocket, you can claim a tax refund based on what you’ve spent. For security workers, you might be using your own vehicle or public transport to travel to temporary workplaces. If your employer isn’t reimbursing you at least as much as HMRC says you should, you can claim back the difference as a tax refund. Depending on your situation, you might also be able to claim a tax refund when you pay for food, upkeep of your uniform, any licences or professional body fees you’re paying and more. Take a look at our free tax refund calculator for a quick idea of what you could be owed. If you're self-employed, ZippTax can even claim your rebate through your Self Assessment tax returns too, PLUS we can handle your self assessment returns as well

ZippTax makes it incredibly easy to get your security worker tax rebate started. All it takes are a few bits of information about you and your work costs. Based on that, we will quickly be able to tell you how much you’re owed. We’ll prepare and submit your claim, then chase HMRC until your refund is paid out. All you need to do it sit back and decide what to do with the money!

The Security Industry Authority was set up to make sure that UK security workers have the training and qualifications to do their jobs. That means it’s against the law to do most kinds of security work without the correct SIA licence. To get your licence, you’ll need to get some specialised training, take the right courses and pass the exams. Depending on what you do, you might need some First Aid training as well. With all that under your belt, you should be good to go. Make sure you have your license before doing any security work.

In most cases, if you've got a job in security, you require an SIA licence. This is true even if you're a self-employed security officer or not working on the front line. The main areas the SIA deals with are: - Manned guarding, covering everything from close protection and door supervision through to public space surveillance and security guard work. - Vehicle immobilisation, restriction and removal. - Key holding. - Security guard. On top of this, the SIA's authority is currently being expanded to cover private investigations, security consultation and precognition agents.

The basic cost of an SIA Licence is £220. You pay up-front and, just like a driving test, still have to cough up the cash if you fail and don't get your licence. You can appeal a failed result within 21 days, but you’ll be expected to fight your corner pretty hard to reverse the result.

As things stand now, you don't need an SIA licence to be a private investigator. However, that situation does get reviewed from time to time. Eventually, private investigators may well find themselves in the same boat as other security workers. As a heads-up, when the industry was looked at by the Home Office back in 2013, they defined private investigation work as: - Obtaining information about a particular person or about the activities or whereabouts of a particular person. - Obtaining information about the circumstances in which, or means by which, property has been lost or damaged.

You can get tax relief on your SIA licence costs along side any travel and mileage expenses claims, regardless of whether you’re employed full-time in the industry or running your own firm as a self-employed security worker. You’ll renew your SIA licence every 3 years, but tax refunds can be claimed for up to 4-years back so there’s no reason to miss out if you haven’t claimed before. As an example: Robert is employed as a security worker, and is claiming a tax refund for his work-related expenses. He is claiming for: Travel to temporary workplaces. Laundry costs for his work uniform. The application and renewal fees for his SIA licence. The rules for a security worker allow Robert to claim tax back on expenses over the previous 4-years. Those years cover both the initial £220 application fee and the £220 extra he paid to renew his licence 3 years later.

Many kinds of security work involve specialised clothing or safety gear. If you’re paying for the cleaning and upkeep of things like this yourself, you can include these costs as expenses in your tax rebate claims. When you’re employed on a PAYE basis, how much you can claim is based on: The cost of cleaning, repairing or replacing work clothes. The cost of cleaning, repairing or replacing your essential safety gear. It’s important to notice the word “essential”. You can’t claim a PAYE tax refund for any costs that aren’t wholly necessary for your work. Laundry costs for a jacket with a company logo on it will probably count, as long as your employer requires you to wear it. The t-shirt you wore to work that one time won’t score you any tax back from HMRC. Also, under the PAYE tax refund rules, you can’t claim anything for the initial purchase costs of your uniforms, tools or equipment. Only their upkeep costs will count toward your tax refund. Self-employed security workers have a whole different system to deal with. Since your pay isn’t taxed before you get it, you settle up with the taxman through the self assessment return system. When you report your earnings and expenses to HMRC each year, you can use your essential work costs to bring down the amount of profit you’re being taxed on. Since buying your necessary clothing and gear counts against those profits, you can generally get tax relief on their initial purchase costs as well as their cleaning and repair. Of course, getting back what HMRC owes you takes some paperwork. When it comes to things like uniform expenses, though, it doesn’t need to be a huge hassle. In fact, you can toss out the receipts for many of your costs and just use HMRC’s figures instead. Self-employed people can use the “simplified expenses” system, while those on PAYE can use “flat rate deductions”. Either way, you’re relying on the taxman’s estimates of what it costs to do your job, rather than your own records. You probably won’t get back everything you’re owed this way, but it cuts down on the bookkeeping. Talk to us here at ZippTax if you're not sure what your best option is.

If you work in the security sector, you essentially spend your days helping and protecting others. But you need to protect yourself too. Especially if you’re a self-employed security professional.  Whether you work in private security, event security or cyber security, you can reduce your tax and save money in the process. We’re talking security work tax refunds, allowable expenses, and more. Here’s how you can do it. Self-employment and tax considerations for security guards So, first of all. Can a security guard be self-employed? The answer to that is of course, yes. Many businesses hire freelance security guards rather than employing them. You may work for a number of clients on a self-employed basis. If you work in cyber security for example, you may work as a self-employed consultant advising a range of businesses. Regardless of whether you help with physical or virtual security, if you’re self-employed you need to pay tax. And where tax is involved, it pays to understand your options and where you can potentially save money. How you pay your tax First of all, you’ll pay your tax every year through a self-assessment tax return. You need to register as self-employed with HMRC and you’ll get a UTR number (Unique Tax Reference) from them, which enables you to submit a tax return. You can do this online at the www.gov.uk website, and you’ll need to get yourself registered by the 5th of October. You must complete a self-assessment tax return by 31st January for the tax year that ended in the previous April. For example, for the tax year ending 5th April 2024, you’ll need to submit a tax return by 31st January 2025. Saving money on your tax: Understanding allowable expenses When you run a self-employed security business, you’ll have various day-to-day costs. You can deduct some of these costs from your income before you work out your taxable profits. Allowable expenses include: Office costs: Stationary or phone bills. Training courses related to your business: For example, courses that help you improve skills and knowledge you currently use for your business or that keep you up to date with technology used in your industry. Advertising and marketing: Including website costs. SIA licence fees. Gear and uniform costs. Mileage allowance When you travel to temporary workplaces for your self-employed security jobs, you can claim back on your mileage. The mileage allowance from HMRC is set at the following flat rates: Cars first 10,000 miles: 45p Cars over 10,000 miles: 25p Motorcycles: 24p If you drove 15,000 miles to temporary workplaces in the last year, you can claim back a total of £4,500 for the first 10,000 miles (10,000 x 45p). For the remainder, you would be able to claim back £1,250 (5,000 x 25p). That’s a significant tax refund. To put yourself in the best position to save money on tax, make sure you: Document everything: 
When claiming your mileage, HMRC wants you to be accurate. You can’t simply estimate your mileage, you’ll need to log every single journey you make. Record things like the date, purpose of the journey, start point, destination and total miles travelled. Remember your deductions: 
Be super clear on the expenses you can deduct and claim back. Remember this could be anything from your uniform and your SIA licence to any extra training courses. Keep receipts for everything you pay out as HMRC will want to see them. Pay into your pension pot: 
Using some of the income from your self-employed security business to pay into your pension pot not only helps you in retirement but it also reduces your tax bill in the here and now. Remember, your pension contribution is taken before you’re taxed, so you’ll end up paying less tax as well as saving for retirement. You can make a maximum of £40,000 a year in pension contributions. 
Plan your savings: 
When the money comes in, you need to be careful with your outgoings. You must save for your annual tax return so you have enough money to pay it once 31st January rolls around. 
Plus, you’ll want to consider saving for the future too. Each year, you can save the following in a tax-free ISA: £20,000 for ISA contributions / £9,000 for Junior ISA contributions / £4,000 for Lifetime ISA contributions Use an expert: 
When you run your own business, you do everything yourself. From the day-to-day security job, to finding more work and billing your clients. Outsourcing your tax affairs, rebates and refunds to an expert like ZippTax takes it off your plate. And we bring our expert knowledge to the table to reduce your tax bill and make your money work harder. At ZippTax our specialist accountants can take the hassle out of your tax affairs. We’ll work alongside you to help you understand where you can save money on your tax bill and get your self-assessment tax return boxed off for you accurately and in plenty of time with HMRC.