OnlyFans and Self Assessment

Before you can file, you have to register for Self Assessment. The deadline to register is 5 October following the end of the tax year in which you started, so if you began earning in one tax year you register by the October that follows it. Registering gives you the Unique Taxpayer Reference you need to file.

Leaving registration late is a common and avoidable mistake, so it is worth marking the 5 October date as soon as you pass the trading allowance.

There are three dates to hold in mind for each tax year. A paper return must be filed by 31 October. An online return must be filed by 31 January. The balancing payment, meaning the tax you owe for the year, is due by 31 January. Missing these can bring penalties and interest, so the online filing and payment date of 31 January is the one most people work to.

Most creators file online, which gives the later deadline and does the calculation for you as you go.

OnlyFans income goes on the self-employment pages of the return. Most creators use the short self-employment pages, SA103S, while those with more complex affairs or higher turnover use the full version, SA103F. These sit alongside the main return and capture your turnover, your expenses and the resulting profit.

Expenses you enter here must meet the usual test of being incurred wholly and exclusively for the business, the same standard set out for allowable expenses.

Payments on account are advance payments towards your next year's tax, and they surprise a lot of first-time filers. They are required where your tax bill for the previous year is £1,000 or more, unless more than 80% of your tax was already collected at source. Where they apply, you make two instalments, on 31 January and 31 July, each of them 50% of the previous year's tax.

The effect in your first year of a larger bill can be that you pay one and a half years of tax at once: the balancing payment for the year just gone plus the first payment on account for the year ahead. Knowing this in advance lets you set the money aside rather than be caught out.

Good records make the return quick and the figures defensible. Keep a note of the payments you receive from the platform, which form your turnover, and the costs you intend to claim, with the evidence behind them. The better the records, the less the return costs you in time or in tax paid unnecessarily.

If you would rather not handle it yourself, our Self Assessment service for creators prepares and files the return for you, and the tax it calculates follows the same rates set out in how OnlyFans income is taxed.