New, improved guidance for those working in the gig economy
Today, there are more gig workers than ever - with many now doing gig work as their primary source of income rather than a means of supplementing other income. Managing your tax position can be difficult at the best of times but we know that workers in the gig economy can find it extra challenging. LITRG is here to help with our updated guidance written especially for those working in the gig economy.
Most gig economy work is done on a self-employed basis. If you are self-employed, you usually pay any tax and National Insurance contributions (NIC) you owe to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) yourself under the Self Assessment system. This is different to if you are an employee, where your employer deducts tax and NIC from your wages and pays it over to HMRC for you, through the PAYE system.
The Self Assessment system can be complex and there is a lack of official, tailored guidance for gig workers to help navigate it. As such, there is often low awareness and much confusion about the tax system and how it applies to gig economy workers. A failure to meet tax obligations as a result of all this, can leave people in a difficult position, even if it was a mistake.
To help, we are taking the opportunity to highlight our basic 'Tax if you work in the gig economy' information which we hope will give you the background knowledge you need to meet your tax obligations!
But that’s not all. As the gig economy develops, so does our guidance! We recently created some new content to cover many more eventualities. The new guidance goes into more detail on the main points such as the trading allowance, registration for Self Assessment, expenses, filling out your tax return and now includes examples. But we also now provide further information on specific topics, such as working through multiple platforms, selling items online, the flat rate VAT scheme, making a loss and what to do if you are behind on your taxes.
Our gig economy guidance can be found across the following four sections:
Want more?
If you are a gig worker and find our guidance useful, please do share it amongst your colleagues. If you feel it would be beneficial for LITRG to expand on any of the areas covered or if you do not think we have covered what you wanted to know, or would like to tell us of your experiences so we might learn and try and get improvements to the system, please do contact us. If you need help with your own tax situation, see our getting help page.
Need help in another language?
If English is not your first language, then you could use a translation tool, such as Google Translate, to translate the guidance on our website to another language. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of any translation tool that you may choose to use.
We also have developed a short set of videos setting out ‘Where to get help with tax if you do not speak English’ in 12 different languages: