Side Hustles

Picture this - you have a job which is your main income but it's not actually enough money, especially now when the costs of absolutely everything seem to be constantly going up and up. So you look at ways of making some money on the side:

• Surveys

• User Generated Content 

• Shop my ... (store, Amazon, TikTok shop etc etc)

• Buying second hand items to resell

• And so on... 

But when do these side hustles stop being a side hustle and actually come reportable income? HMRC is very clear on this - you have a trading allowance of £1,000 of income and above that you have a trade (aka business) and the income needs to be reported on your self-assessment. The allowance is £1,000 across all of your side hustle income, not by income type. 

So what do you need to do? If you wanted a bronze medal from me you would:

• Keep accounting records of income and business related spend

• Register for self-assessment 

• Complete your self-assessment 

And if you were aiming for a silver medal, then as well as the above you would:

• Open a separate bank account purely for your self-employed work

• Use accounting software and link your new business bank account to it

• Use receipt capture software to link all your receipts and bills into your accounting software

And if you were going for gold then on top of the above six points you would:

• Speak to an accountant / bookkeeper to ensure you are doing it all right and understand if you can DIY it all or if you need professional help

• Set aside money for your tax bill

• Understand when MTD for Income Tax might be applicable to you.

And as always comes up – selling your own “stuff” on Vinted / Ebay is not a side-hustle and does not count. But if you are buying to resell, that does.