Time for social media stars to grow up when it comes to tax

Having your name, address and occupation listed publicly on quarterly lists published by the Revenue Commissioners, together with details of how much of a tax liability you failed to declare and the additional financial penalties and interest you must now pay, is not an occasion anyone looks forward to.

That’s the point of it. Naming and shaming tax defaulters – and remember, it is only those who have dodged more than €50,000 in tax they owed or whose default is so egregious that the penalties amount to more than 15 per cent of the tax bill due – is part of the penalty. Or the deterrent, to look at it another way.

One tax adviser is looking to change the rules. Brendan Brady represents OnlyFans content creators and other social media influencers who, he says, can earn up to €200,00 a year from the work. Most are in their early to mid-20s, generally working from home.

He says clients fear for their personal safety if their addresses are made public, and is pressing for a change in the rules.

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There is an alternative approach: just pay the tax you owe.

If you’re old enough for your working life to centre on titillating customers, as OnlyFans creators do, then you’re old enough to understand you need to pay tax on the money you earn.

And if your earnings amount to six figures, you would want to be deluded to be unaware that you would be liable for tax. And remember, OnlyFans and other platforms are obliged to let Revenue know they’ve paid you in the first place.

As Revenue says, you end up on the list only when “the extensive voluntary disclosure options are not availed of and the default arises because of careless or deliberate behaviour”.

Where it suspects a return is due, Revenue will issue a Level 1 intervention letter, essentially nudging the taxpayers to make sure everything is in order. If ignored, that will be followed up by a Level 2 intervention, leading to an audit. At either of those levels, any admission from the taxpayer keeps you off the defaulters’ list.

If after all this you find yourself on a defaulters’ list, you have only yourself to blame.