Even celebrities fall foul of HMRC in the trawl of the ‘Only Fans’ platform.

You may be a celebrity and certainly ‘Only Fans’ has made celebrities of many of the creators of video content viewed on that site. It’s certainly made many people very rich and HMRC now want their cut.

Going to Only Fans direct is easy pickings for HMRC as they sit on details of the names and addresses of those trading on the site and all of the earnings they have made from it. Bit by bit HMRC are sending out notices to people they believe I’ve not declared the full extent of their income. We would expect this tax generation project to carry on throughout 2023.

If you are caught by HMRC take a deep breath and remember it is no different to any other enquiry launched by them.

All you need to do is answer the questions they have asked in the opening letter and information schedule. No more no less.

The use of an advisor experience in these matters will be able to tell you exactly what is going to happen to you, how many years it is likely to involve and roughly how much you will have to pay in tax interest charges and penalty charges.

But remember provided that you try to be as transparent as possible from day one, provide the records they request namely your bank statements you will benefit from a much-reduced penalty charge.

Failure to reply to them on time or ignoring them will only result in more serious letters being sent to you and higher penalty charges. HMRC already know everything anyway – they are just waiting for you to confirm it.

No one ever thought HMRC would be able to access this sort of digital content so easily but they are now approaching anyone trading online where payment of commission is involved.

Don’t ignore it if it happens to you – remember no one died of embarrassment and with the right advice from day one you will not go to prison, you will not lose your home – there is a whole raft of enquiries and settlements to be achieved long before you would have a face losing your home. Instalment arrangements are available for everyone to pay their tax over time if you are faced with a large tax bill following this kind of enquiry. Lindsay can help.