Does Fiverr or Upwork report to HMRC?

Freelance income earned through Fiverr, Upwork or similar marketplaces is taxed under the normal self-employment rules, meaning Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance apply to your profit after allowable expenses.

Digital platform reporting rules require platforms that facilitate the sale of services, including freelance marketplaces, to collect information about their UK sellers and report certain details annually to HMRC.

These rules came into force on 1 January 2024, and the first reports covering the 2024 calendar year were made to HMRC by the end of January 2025, with annual reporting continuing each year after.

A small-seller exemption can apply where a seller makes fewer than 30 transactions and total income of around £1,700 or less in the reportable year, meaning the platform may not need to report that seller specifically.

This exemption relates only to the platform reporting obligation, not to your own tax position. Even fully exempt sellers must still declare taxable income to HMRC themselves if it exceeds the usual thresholds.

Fiverr and Upwork both charge service fees on transactions. Your taxable income is based on the gross amount charged to the client, with platform fees then claimed as an allowable business expense, not simply the net amount you receive.

If you use multiple platforms plus direct client work, all of this is combined as one self-employed trade for Self Assessment purposes, with total gross income and total allowable expenses reported together.

Because HMRC now receives independent data from these platforms, it is more important than ever that your declared income matches what has actually flowed through your platform accounts, reducing the risk of a discrepancy enquiry.

Registering for Self Assessment is based on your income level, generally required once your gross trading income across all sources passes £1,000 in a tax year, regardless of whether the platform itself reports you.

If you are unsure whether previous years have been correctly declared, a calm voluntary disclosure to HMRC is almost always a better route than waiting, and can often be arranged with manageable payment terms.

Source: Income Tax rates and allowances (gov.uk) · Self Assessment (gov.uk)