5 Tax-Free Ways to Make More Money | Earning

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Once you start doing well for yourself from side income, you may start to worry about whether you're going to run into HMRC issues. The taxman ain't stupid after all. You may fret about a day when a brown letter drops through the letter box demanding an explanation for why you're balling on social media, when they know you're holding down a £23k-a-year job.

Tell them to ease off.

There are so many ways to declare your money correctly. Digging into the difference between self-employment, limited companies and all the rest of the methods will probably send you down a rabbit hole to try and figure out whether you need to know the correct dormant company companies house procedure. Before you get carried away and start reading up on things that simply do not apply to you, focus on the money making methods that you don't have to consider tax for.

There are plenty of ways you can earn money without having to worry about what HMRC thinks about your activity. There's no need to keep a stash of receipts, invoices and balance sheets, if you're taking part in one of the following:

1. Matched betting

Matched betting is the act of betting for opposing outcomes in a way that guarantees you profit. There’s more too it, but it all revolves around methods to game the gambling industry in your favour. When you take part in this, you are not gambling. I repeat: you are not gambling.

The reason why HMRC gives you a pass for this kind of thing is because they believe that if you're getting payouts from bookmakers, you must be putting your funds at risk.

Want to try it? Sign up for Heads & Heads and find out exactly how you can do the same.

2. Selling Your Second-Hand Products

If you're reading this, you probably have several thousand pounds worth of goods in your home that you can cash in for profit.

You're well within your right to sell things that you bought to use. Note that the taxman won't know whether you're purposely buying and not using that Emma Bridgewater mug set, but they'll be pretty certain the stash of Super Nintendo Classics weren't originally all going to be used by you.

If this sounds like the thing for you, eBay, Gumtree, Depop and Facebook are and have great marketplaces that you can sell pretty much anything on. If you're the sort, a car boot may be a more convenient option for you.

3. Trading in media and books

Has Netflix rendered your box set collection redundant? Is Spotify the replacement for your old albums collection? Have you realised that you're sitting on a load of Xbox 360 games you'll probably ever play again? There are websites specifically made to make it as smooth as possible to swap all this media for cash.

Again, this is yours to sell on in this way. While you're rounding everything up to sell, you may as well ask friends and family if they have anything they want rid of too. Books can be traded in this way too, and non-fiction texts tend to retain more value, so keep this in-mind.

Here’s a comparison to get the most for your money from media trade-in sites.

4. Comping

Compers are people that enter a lot of competitions. These people may enter hundreds per day and thousands per week. Standard. There are a few in the UK who have managed to make this their full-time income and live THAT well off all of their loot.

Squeeze a little in here and there. Get a feel for the potential. At first, expect to get things you can live without, but you can build up to some ridiculous prizes. As well as cash, there's a lot of resale potential.

5. Cashback

Cashback is one of the greatest things about internet shopping. Most big retailers allow you to earn rebates for shopping through sites associated with them. I write about it often, because I was slipping for years before I made it part of my online shopping routine.

As well as everyday purchases, you can earn cashback for switching suppliers, taking out insurance, and other big purchases. My Top Cashback account has been popping since I started online arbitrage, but there’s no reason why yours wouldn’t add up to hundreds at the end of each year, if you shop frequently online.