Self-employment and surveys

Masomnia

Hi all, thought I'd resurrect this thread rather than start a new one, even though I'm not sure we'll get any further

I was a member of yougov a few years ago and after about three years of tedium I finally got my £50.... It wouldn't have occurred to me to pay tax, and at the time I wouldn't have earned enough anyway.

I'm making an effort right now to try and boost my income and I'm doing surveys pretty heavily. Now it's not my main source of income, but this week I've earned over £10 on prolific alone.

There may be ups and downs, but if that remains consistent I'll have earned over £500 over a year. Then add on populus and onepoll. Might start doing others...

That's actually quite a lot of money, and my sense is that I should be paying tax on it. It seems difficult to argue that this is not self-employed income.

In a way I don't really want to register with HMRC now in case I get bored of doing it, get more 'proper' work and stop doing these soon. I'm thinking I'll put a spreadsheet together of all the income, dates, etc. and keep copies of email confirmations, and then at the end of the tax year ring HMRC and see what their view is of what I've been doing and if I should pay tax on what I've earned.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Moon_Keh

My take on it is that cashback from purchases via sites like Top Cashback, or direct from vendor don't count as income. It's an incentive to make a purchase like any other form of discount.

I consider completing a survey for any award that translates into cash (i.e. surveys that let you accumulate points or pounds and pence that you then convert into a gift voucher) to be income and to be declared.

The handful of items I end up with from review sites are not declared. The way I see it is that I'm doing them a favour by them showing me something and me telling them what it's like. I have little control over what they decide to send me (or not send me) and I consider the result of that to be more or less unsolicited. The most I've ever received is a hoodie that I don't even like it all that much anyway.

Flyonthewall

Moon_Keh wrote: »

My take on it is that cashback from purchases via sites like Top Cashback, or direct from vendor don't count as income. It's an incentive to make a purchase like any other form of discount.

I consider completing a survey for any award that translates into cash (i.e. surveys that let you accumulate points or pounds and pence that you then convert into a gift voucher) to be income and to be declared.

The handful of items I end up with from review sites are not declared. The way I see it is that I'm doing them a favour by them showing me something and me telling them what it's like. I have little control over what they decide to send me (or not send me) and I consider the result of that to be more or less unsolicited. The most I've ever received is a hoodie that I don't even like it all that much anyway.

By doing a survey you're doing them a favour by telling them your opinion, same as with a review. Both items and gift cards have a value too. In both cases you've no control over what's given, you don't set the amount rewarded for a survey or the cashout options and you don't control items given to you to review.

In all cases it's an incentive. Cashback is buy through us and we'll give you some back in return. Surveys and reviews are give your opinion and we'll give you something back in return.

As I've said already, it is a grey area so not saying there's a right or wrong with what you've said, but what makes them different?