LW admin
Fees, receipts and your first tax season
This is general information, not tax advice. Rules differ by country and by person. Your national tax authority's website is the authoritative source.
The first months of side work are usually spent on the work itself. The admin tends to arrive all at once, months later, when the details are hardest to reconstruct. A few small habits from week one make that moment much easier.
Read the fee page before you start
Most platforms take a share: a listing fee, a commission per sale or job, a payment processing fee, sometimes a fee to withdraw money. These are normally published on a page called something like “Fees” or “Seller fees”. Read it, and for a typical job or sale write down what reaches your bank account after every deduction.
Keep one simple log
A spreadsheet with five columns is enough: date, what it was, money in, money out, and a note of where the receipt is. Add a line every time something is paid to you or by you for the side work. Doing it weekly takes a few minutes; doing it once a year takes a weekend.
Keep receipts for what you spend
Tools, materials, postage, a share of your phone bill: depending on where you live, some of these may count as expenses. Keep the receipts, digital or paper, in one place.
Separate the money if you can
A separate bank account, even a basic one, for side-work money in and out makes the log almost write itself and avoids mixing personal spending into it.
Find out the rules early
Look up how your country treats small or occasional self-employed income: whether you need to register, when returns are due, and whether any allowances apply. In the United States the IRS has pages on the gig economy; in the United Kingdom HMRC publishes guidance on side income; in Brazil the Receita Federal and the MEI portal explain the options. If your situation is unusual, a short consultation with an accountant is often worth it.
← Back to the dial