Declaring Online Earning Income?

Bookworm_Del · 15 May 2017 at 2:28PM

Hi,

Hope you can help me at all. I have been doing online surveys and the like for years, unknowingly, I have been doing so without declaring these earnings. I was under the impression because I earned under £10,000 a year that I did not have to declare this.

I recently found out that this activity actually qualifies as being self-employed. I suffer with poor mental health - anxiety, depression, PTSD etc and hearing this information has sky-rocketed some of my conditions because I am now so worried that I will get into trouble.

I want to now do the right thing and tell HMRC that I am now self-employed and declare my online income. In the past, my earnings have ranged but I have never earned more than a couple of thousand pound in total over the years - this includes things like selling my own personal items online via Ebay and Gumtree and survey sites or receiving money for a research project or a competition win for example.

However, my worry is if I now tell HMRC will they then look back into my account and see what I've earned and will I then end up in even more trouble? If that's the case, I will simply just stop my online earning. I'm completely unemployed by the way, in receipt of no benefits. I was on JSA a couple of years back and receiving housing benefit in the past but I was paying something towards those too. So it's not like I will have any income whatsoever without the online earning - therefore, I don't think I will ever earn enough to have to pay tax on it anyway.

If you can advise me, please do? I have completely stopped my online activity since hearing that I have unknowingly done this. I am willing to just ring them and tell them I am now self-employed but I am worried I am going to end up in a lot of trouble. I would not earn anything online between now and telling them and from then onwards I would do everything that I have to do in regards to record-keeping and declaring income.

Just a couple more questions -

if I am self-employed, and say I tell them this now, when do I have to provide a self-assessment for? Like what year/months from now or does it go into the past?

If I get a job and no longer need to be self-employed and rely on online earnings, can I simply tell them this and complete a tax return for just the months that I have been self-employed?

Thankyou so much!

tykesi · 15 May 2017 at 3:12PM

Have you actually looked into the rules on HMRC or just blindly believing what you've heard? Maybe a bit of investigation into your actual obligations would help?

so_very_confused · 15 May 2017 at 3:45PM

You are entitled to a tax allowance and yes if you earn under this amount you are not liable to pay any tax.
The rules for national Insurance are different and I think that kicks in at a lower amount.
Try going online and checking Gov uk
There are several posts at the beggining of Mystery shoppers thread that deal with tax, have a read of that.

culpepper · 15 May 2017 at 5:09PM

Selling your own personal items (not new or made to sell) is non taxable anyway.

asajj · 15 May 2017 at 8:59PM

tykesi wrote: »

Have you actually looked into the rules on HMRC or just blindly believing what you've heard? Maybe a bit of investigation into your actual obligations would help?

Online earnings are taxable like any other sources of income.

Selling your own personal items are not taxable, as you are not buying them with the purpose of re-selling.

There are a number of threads on the forum as suggested. Have a read about them.

Bookworm_Del · 15 May 2017 at 9:16PM

Hi yes I have read other threads thankyou and I feel like obviously if I am going to continue I need to contact them and register as self employed now. However, my anxiety is through the roof wondering if I do this whether they will look back and fine me for the period I was not aware I had to register as self employed if that makes sense. Just wondering if anyone had any similar experience of this... they do surveys, make money online then at a later date have realised they need to declare this. What happens? Will I get in trouble for not declaring it until now? Please help. I feel really down and low about it all, the worry is making me sick.

culpepper · 16 May 2017 at 7:57AM

If you started from scratch and just declared self employment from today, they would expect you to keep a record of the year's income and expenses. Doesn't matter how it is recorded.
Then next April they would ask you to fill in a form which you can do on their website (you don't have to do it straight away but I always do to get it over with).
I have never been asked to provide my actual records of earnings and expenses but they do expect you to keep them else how are you going to be able to declare the income and expenditure.

Remember that some things are not profit because you need to have the facility to earn and you use some earnings to provide that for yourself ..eg materials ,fares, stationery, the computer (On the HMRC site there is a guide to what counts and how it can be calculated).

Reue · 23 May 2017 at 4:57PM

HMRC are currently running a "Second Income Campaign" which allows you to declare income from previous years. The idea is that your case will be looked at much more favorably and any tax/penalties you owe will be reduced down to 0-30% of what they would otherwise be.

Details at: https://secondincomes.campaign.gov.uk/

patman99 · 23 May 2017 at 6:01PM

Don't forget that anything earned as cashback via sites like TopCashBack and Quidco are tax free Sonni need to declare these.

Flyonthewall · 23 May 2017 at 7:05PM

Bookworm_Del wrote: »

Hope you can help me at all. I have been doing online surveys and the like for years, unknowingly, I have been doing so without declaring these earnings. I was under the impression because I earned under £10,000 a year that I did not have to declare this.

You still have to declare earnings under £10,000, you just wouldn't have to pay tax (unless earning money another way i.e. are employed).

However, surveys are a grey area.

I want to now do the right thing and tell HMRC that I am now self-employed and declare my online income. In the past, my earnings have ranged but I have never earned more than a couple of thousand pound in total over the years - this includes things like selling my own personal items online via Ebay and Gumtree and survey sites or receiving money for a research project or a competition win for example.

Your own personal items do not need to be declared. Personal items are yours to sell and are not classed as income.

Survey sites are a grey area, as I mentioned above. This is because sites usually state you are not working for or with them. They're not a job. A lot of the sites states reward or prizes and many give gift cards rather (or as well as) cash payments. Some people do declare them, others do not.

Competition wins are usually tax free and do not need to be declared. It's not income, it's a prize.

Cashback from sites, banks and credit/debit cards and shop reward points (e.g. Tesco Clubcard, GAME reward card, Nectar points etc.) do not need to be declared.

Research projects, mystery shopping, blogging, vlogging, freelancing and so on are all income that needs to be declared.

However, my worry is if I now tell HMRC will they then look back into my account and see what I've earned and will I then end up in even more trouble? If that's the case, I will simply just stop my online earning. I'm completely unemployed by the way, in receipt of no benefits. I was on JSA a couple of years back and receiving housing benefit in the past but I was paying something towards those too. So it's not like I will have any income whatsoever without the online earning - therefore, I don't think I will ever earn enough to have to pay tax on it anyway.

If you can advise me, please do? I have completely stopped my online activity since hearing that I have unknowingly done this. I am willing to just ring them and tell them I am now self-employed but I am worried I am going to end up in a lot of trouble. I would not earn anything online between now and telling them and from then onwards I would do everything that I have to do in regards to record-keeping and declaring income.

Thankyou so much!

The .gov isn't very clear on online activity. Best idea is to phone them and just state what you do and ask if any of it needs to be declared. Try not to panic about it, just be clear and to the point as to what activities you do and they'll advise you.

The advice is generally mixed though based on posts on here from people who have phoned up to ask. Not everyone will understand what it is you've been doing and if you say, for example, you did some surveys and got a few Amazon gift cards they may be highly amused and rather confused as to why you'd think you have to be declaring it or they could just see it as you've been giving something with a value for doing something for someone and therefore it should be declared.

Either way, it's not something to worry about. No post I have seen (from people who have phoned) has resulted in anyone being in trouble. You may be told you don't need to declare anything and if you do then you can start doing so from now on.

Marvqn1 · 10 July 2017 at 10:29AM

When you fill out your tax return, if you do more than one type of thing online, what do you enter as description of business? Do you just enter the main type of thing you do, or everything i.e. surveys?

Declaring Online Earning Income?

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