HMRC targets 4m side hustlers as online platforms share data

Sara White, Editor, Business & Accountancy Daily. Croner-i

Millions of side hustlers warned as HMRC receives huge tranche of £55bn worth of sales data from online platforms including eBay, Airbnb and finfluencer sites.

HMRC has its sights on a lucrative tax grab as a total of £55bn of sales have been declared from online marketplaces, holiday home rental and content sharing sites in 2025, nearly double the figure just one year earlier.

The figure for 2025 is nearly double last year’s disclosed figure of £25.5bn, ramping up pressure on side hustlers who may not have been paying their correct tax.

Tax experts at BDO warned HMRC is gearing up for a fresh crackdown on those who fail to disclose their incomes from online sales after new figures show that the tax authority received reports on the earnings of almost four million online sellers in 2025.

The new figures, obtained via a freedom of information request submitted by accountancy firm BDO, showed that HMRC received reports on the incomes of 3,988,892 online sellers in calendar year 2025, a 272% rise on the 1,466,171 seller reports submitted in 2024.

Total online earnings from this group reached almost £55bn in 2025, more than double the £25.5bn reported in calendar year 2024.

HMRC said the figures are likely to include a mixture of individual sellers or entity sellers such as companies, partnerships, trusts or charities. 

Since 1 January 2024, digital platforms have been required to share information with HMRC where a user makes more than 30 sales per year and earns more than £1,700.

Dawn Register, a tax dispute resolution partner at BDO said: ‘HMRC have been concerned for some time that large numbers of people may have been under declaring incomes earned via digital platforms – but up until now, they haven’t always had the information to prove it.

‘This new data will be an absolute gamechanger for HMRC – and a goldmine for tax inspectors seeking to ensure that online sellers pay the right amount of tax.

‘With a staggering £55bn of online sales reported to HMRC for 2025, the tax authority will have a huge new target to aim at.

‘We know that HMRC is now in the final stages of building a system to automatically extract and analyse this new data. Once complete, this will be used to target its future compliance activity.

‘We would encourage all those who have failed to accurately declare their historic earnings to bring their tax affairs up to date. In some cases, those with historical tax liabilities may also be able to agree a Time to Pay arrangement to repay money owed in instalments.’

In 2025, HMRC received 811 reports directly from digital operators in the UK, up from 806 in 2024, according to the FOI. It also received 13 reports about UK taxpayers from overseas jurisdictions, some of which may contain information from multiple platform operators.

Earlier this year, HMRC ran a letter campaign to people involved in online platform sales, and compliance activity will no doubt ramp up in the coming months. HMRC has an online checker tool for sellers to check whether they should be paying tax on their earnings from these activities.

HMRC was keen to stress that despite being in receipt of a treasure trove of data, nothing has changed for taxpayers, telling Business & Accountancy Daily ‘if someone is earning more than £1,000 from their side hustle annually, HMRC may consider this “trading” and they might need to pay tax’.

From digital content creation to dog walking, side hustles are a big part of the daily lives of people across the country, and inevitably some will be caught out by the UK’s arcane and complex tax laws.

HMRC also flagged the long-running Help for Hustles campaign designed to help taxpayers with income from side hustles understand their tax obligations and ‘avoid any surprises’.

An HMRC spokesperson told Business & Accountancy Daily: ‘Absolutely nothing has changed – people selling unwanted items online from time to time are not liable to pay tax on that activity. As has always been the case, some people trading via websites or selling services online may need to register for self assessment.’

Of course, it is also important to remember that Making Tax Digital for Income Tax for wave one of taxpayers with over £50,000 in qualifying income earned in 2024-25 tax year, including landlords, sole traders and self employed, starts from 6 April 2026, with the first mandatory quarterly reporting deadline for MTD on Friday 7 August. 

HMRC tool, Check if you need to tell HMRC about your income from online platforms