I have a standard, corporate job where I am paid a salary. Recently I have been doing some ecological surveys for free to gain experience but going forward they would like to pay me modest survey fees and expenses. Is there an easy way to take these small, adhoc payments without going down the self assessment or self employed route? They really are quite small and would not be regular.

What surveys…..otherwise no you’ll need to self assess.

Self assessment really is very straight forward

Check your contract with main employer. You may need to get permission before taking on a second job.

can they be paid at expenses rate — though TBH you’d still need to declare I’d have thought..

I don’t work in that corner of HMRC, but the pain of doing it correctly vastly outweighs the pain of them finding out later.

As above, check with your employer as well

Can they pay you in beer instead? Can’t imagine you would need to declare that?

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