To think my friend should be paying tax on this?

[Tired75643]

My friend is a stay at home mum to 2 young DC, husband earns just enough for her not to work while kids are young, no universal credit.
She mentioned the other day she gets extra income from doing online surveys, phone interviews and tests etc and has been earning about £200 a month from it for the last few months. It came up because she was using gift cards for all her purchases when we were shopping one day, she explained that if she gets paid via PayPal then she would have to pay tax after making £100, but if she takes it out as gift cards (Tesco, Amazon, Love2Shop etc) then she doesn't.
Essentially she's getting paid as much as she can in vouchers and using them instead of cash to avoid being taxed.
Is she right? Or does it still count as earnings as she is still getting the same financial amount from it? My friend can be a bit head in the clouds and I'm worried she might end up having to pay back money she won't have, or getting herself into trouble

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Leave her to it, I cant imagine involving myself in my friends business like this!

You can earn £1k a year from things like this and it’s not taxable. Any more and you should do self assessment I believe. I think it’s under Misc income.

Well she has her tax allowance of £12750 pa that will cover that easily!

There is no way she'll have to pay tax on income of £200 a MONTH

I wouldn't lose any sleep over this op.

If she's only making £200 a month she will be way under the threshold for needing to pay any tax (assuming this is her only personal income).

Whether or not she needs to declare this via self-assessment etc, I don't know. Probably best to check on places like MSE and gov.uk

She can earn 14K ish without being taxed.

Jeez, with friends like you.......

Mind your own.

Yes, ON TOP of your £12750 tax free allowance!

Surely she could just take the £200 as cash as she is well below the tax allowance?

None of your business

OP If you want to help your friend then tell her that she can earn up to £12570 pa before she needs to pay any income tax so there's no need for her to be paid in vouchers.

My friend can be a bit head in the clouds and I'm worried she might end up having to pay back money she won't have, or getting herself into trouble

Maybe you're more alike than you think, considering you don't understand what a tax allowance is.

She's not going to be earning a taxable income from this. She could take it as cash.

I think she'll need to compete a self-assessment if at the end of the year she's earned more than £1k. Not sure if she's strictly self-employed though, I don't know what the measure of that is.

Perhaps I've phrased it badly, I'm not saying I think she should have to pay tax on it, I don't.
It was that she thought she had to pay tax after earning £1000 from it and that gift cards were like a loop hole to get around it, whether that was the case or not.

I think she has misunderstood or you have. She probably meant she’ll be paid more if she takes it out in vouchers vs PayPal. These thing tend to give you a little bit more if you take the voucher option.

This! Good grief, myob! It's a gift card as a thank you for doing the surveys.

Yes she will get more with vouchers. I always get vouchers from TopCashback because it’s more

That's literally nothing like your title or OP. And still wrong.

Errrm, your thread title says: [AIBU] To think my friend should be paying tax on this?

Now you're backtracking and saying "I'm not saying I think she should have to pay tax on it, I don't."???

I think if she were using her tax allowance already then yes getting paid in vouchers is a loophole to the 1k rule. I know that at my work we can choose to get a Christmas bonus in cash or as a voucher and if we choose a voucher then we don't pay any tax on it.

Renumeration for completing surveys is not considered income. It is entirely non-taxable.

In terms of odd jobs etc. the trading allowance is £1k (up to which you do not need to declare/ pay tax).

But you've said she's a SAHM so isn't using any of her Personal Allowance over 12k pa?!

Good idea I would do something like this what sites is she using