OECD Platform Disclosure Rules: Everything You Need to Know
WHAT DO THE OECD RULES MEAN?
Since January 2024, digital platforms must share information with HMRC about the income of sellers offering goods, accommodation, transport, and personal services on their platforms.
The government passed new regulations, following a consultation period in 2022 and in line with OECD guidelines. From January 1, 2024, any UK-based software platform facilitating peer-to-peer trading in property (like Airbnb, Vinted, Etsy) or providing personal services like delivery and tutoring must check and report details of active sellers to HMRC each year.
This also applies across the EU under DAC7 rules, compelling platforms to provide tax authorities with information on sellers using their sites.
Not all businesses fall under these rules – listing platforms, payment processors, and those just linking to service providers are excluded. Small or non-profit platforms might be exempt, but careful consideration is needed to avoid penalties for non-compliance.
If no exclusions apply and an online business sees itself as a platform operator, it must inform HMRC. Platform operators must submit a report to HMRC by January 31 for the previous year's active sellers (e.g., you must submit your report for the period of 1st Jan-31st Dec 2024 by 31st Jan 2025).
You should be able to record the activities of registered sellers, and specific information like names, addresses, tax IDs, and property addresses (for property platforms) must be reported to HMRC.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR MARKETPLACES?
The rules mean that marketplaces now need to take some extra steps to collect and submit data of the sellers on their platform. Failure to do so means that marketplaces can now be fined by local tax authorities.
Ryft helps to manage this process with our full reporting suite by making the information readily accessible for submission. The reporting suite can be used to fetch any data needed, which can then be exported as an Excel spreadsheet to make it easier to manage.
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