Online Platforms – the changing landscape for the self-employed
We are pleased to publish our position paper setting out how the experience of the tax system for online traders can be improved following the increased use of online platforms such as eBay, Uber and Deliveroo.
Many people, who often cannot afford professional tax advice, use online platforms to sell goods or services either as their main earnings or as a ‘side hustle’. Our paper explains why this sector may become a ‘ticking time bomb’ for the tax system from January 2025 and highlights three main areas where we explain what the issues are, why these matter and – most importantly – suggests actionable solutions.
The main areas of concern are:
- a current lack of targeted guidance and pro-active support from HMRC
- the lack of a standard, helpful format for the new platform reports – and consequent possibility of seller confusion – and lack of help from online platforms
- the misalignment of self-employment reporting rules for tax and universal credit purposes.
The aim of this paper is to encourage HMRC to act to ensure that people using online platforms understand what they need to do to get their tax affairs right, and that HMRC can provide them with the information they need to do this. We believe the solutions we propose could increase tax compliance and in turn reduce the tax gap for this sector of the self-employed economy.
