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Sole trader or company? in
What each costs you in tax, what each costs to run, and the one question that usually decides it: will you keep money in the business?
Herm has no government of its own: it is owned and administered by the States of Guernsey, which have leased the whole island to one tenant company since 2008 — so Guernsey’s laws, taxes and registries apply there.
Income tax and company tax are checked; self-employed social security is still being researched.
Most Guernsey companies pay 0%. A Guernsey resident pays 20% income tax above the personal allowance — £15,200 in 2026 — on profit as a sole trader, or on what the company pays them, which the company deducts at 20%.
- 2 Before you apply · 100%
- 2 You · 100%
As a sole traderYouthe Revenue Service
Register with the Revenue Service; you pay income tax and social security directly to it, with an interim assessment for the year ahead.
Keep going
- Work for yourselfTrade as yourself, without a company: what you register, and what you are exempt from.Open
- Choose a registered officeThe official address every company must have: where it can be, whose permission it needs, and where it must be shown.Open
- Get a business licenceWho needs one in Jersey, who is exempt, how long it takes — and the three things it sets going.Open
- All of it, in orderPlan my start draws every journey you need, for your place, with your costs.Plan my start
Words in this journey:Limited company