does the taxman want my survey money?

mrsyardbroom

it's worth paying an accountant

Accountants charge £50 to breathe in and £50 to breathe out. One person told me they had been paying their accountant £300 a year and then found out that all he was doing was obtaining a tax return and putting a couple of ticks on it. Do not pay an accountant for a small amount of earnings that you are declaring to the taxman. There is plenty of information on the HMRC website plus a helpline where you can get free advice and endless websites dedicated to teaching you how to pay the least possible tax. Learn as much as you can and claim all your legitimate expenses. If you end up paying a large amount of tax then it should be because you are earning a very large amount of money. Good luck.

marvellousaunt

I do not believe surveys income should be declared.

The reason being that self-employed work, eg mystery shopping, you are a contractor of the company. You complete market research for an incentive and you are at no time contracted by that company. I've had people stop me in the street and give me £5 cash or a free cup of tea for market research, just because it is online doesn't mean it is any different to this - a simple incentive for filling out a survey. It's not self-employed work.

*prepares to get shot down*

This is how I've done it for the past 5 years doing surveys work, especially for the ones that you get vouchers for (most of them).

Hoody

marvellousaunt wrote: »

I do not believe surveys income should be declared.

Unfortunately, like it or not it is money that is earned hence then tax man will want to know about it. If they find that you have not declared it they will undoubtedly also go digging to see what else they can find as well?

mrsyardbroom

Please don't tell people that it's OK to earn money from surveys and not declare it to the taxman. The earnings are casual earnings and should be declared. If somebody gives you money in return for doing something then it has to be declared whether you are contracted or not.

This is how I've done it for the past 5 years doing surveys work, especially for the ones that you get vouchers for (most of them).

If I were you I would get some advice from HMRC on this. They tax me on my survey earnings and have never told me it's OK not to declare it! (I have asked). You could be getting yourself into trouble here.

marvellousaunt

Are you self-employed as a market researcher? No. It doesn't need to be over-complicated.

What's next - if my grandmother gives me £5 in return for cleaning her house, I should declare that as well!? Some people go down the route of declaring everything they've ever breathed in as an income and while I understand the logic, I think it is rather over-egging the omelette, so to speak.

I've done surveys for a long time, since I was a student, and nobody has ever decided to be self employed as a professional survey taker in order to complete a tax return. The idea is ludicrous.