Uber, Ola, and Bolt

Following Covid, more people are becoming van and car drivers as self-employed workers joining such pre-paying Apps as Uber, Ola, and Bolt.

HMRC have the legal right to collect data from businesses who charge commission to workers and pay them for their services, in order to check whether these workers are declaring their self-employed income through self-assessment

The regulations allow HMRC to contact various taxi companies and request data that they have collected through app-based business models, including the names and addresses of the drivers, perhaps their national insurance numbers and details of all the payments made to them.

Current information leads us to believe that over 4,000 self-employed private hire drivers have potentially under-declared their income and will be contacted by HMRC in due course.

For the first time ever HMRC have sent text messages to such drivers, advising them to use the HMRC digital disclosure service to initially make voluntary declarations of their income and pay any tax due. This is not easy, and accountants and specialist advisors are the right people to make such declarations. Working with one will allow the drivers to make a full and accurate declaration as these voluntary disclosures carry a health warning that false declarations can lead to prosecution.

Lindsay has also been advised that many such private hire drivers may well have declared themselves to be working part-time at only 16 hours a week in order to claim child tax credits (CTC). At the conclusion of any investigation those claiming CTC or working tax credits (WTC) will have the additional earnings notified to the Department of Working and Pensions who will then contact them to recover any overpaid tax credits.

If you receive an HMRC text, letter, or request, contact Lindsay urgently, who as an experienced adviser, can give you the answers you need over the phone.

Lindsay Henson can, so call her now on 07879 464 577 for more help!