Paying Someone to Help on Your Stall: What HMRC Expects

Two different situations

People lump these together, but HMRC treats them very differently. Work out which one you are in first.

**Situation one: occasional, casual help.** A friend or family member helps now and then. They turn up when it suits both of you, there is no fixed arrangement, and you pay them a flat sum for the day. This is the "fifty quid to a mate" scenario, and it is the one most stallholders are in.

**Situation two: you have taken someone on.** Someone works for you regularly. You decide when they work, what they do, and how they do it. They rely on the work and the income. This is employment, even if it is part time, casual sounding, or paid in cash. Food vendors often end up here, because running a van usually needs more than one pair of hands on a predictable basis.

Occasional help

The key thing to understand is that there is no special exemption that makes cash payments invisible to HMRC. "Cash in hand" is not a legal category; it is just a payment method. The income is taxable whoever you are.

The practical reality is this: if the help is genuinely occasional and the person is not really working under your control, the tax obligation sits with **them**, not you. Your helper is responsible for declaring that income to HMRC, usually through Self Assessment if they already file a return, or by telling HMRC about it if the amounts are small. Many people have a small "trading allowance" of £1,000 a year that can cover casual earnings like this, which means they may owe nothing and have nothing to report, but that is their position to check, not yours to manage.

There is a useful HMRC rule that fits craft fairs almost exactly. For genuinely casual workers taken on for short, sporadic periods and paid off at the end with no contract for further work, an employer does not have to operate PAYE if the engagement does not exceed 14 days in total in the tax year. Past that point, PAYE comes into play. Most stallholders helping each other out a handful of weekends a year are comfortably inside this.

**What this means for you in practice:**

• 1. Keep a simple note of who you paid, how much, and when. A line in a notebook or a spreadsheet is enough. This protects you if anyone ever asks.
• 2. Tell your helper, plainly, that the money counts as income they need to declare. That is a kindness, not a formality; it keeps them out of trouble too.
• 3. Do not pretend a regular arrangement is casual. If the same person works most of your events on a predictable basis, see situation two.

You have taken someone on

If the arrangement looks like employment, you have employer responsibilities regardless of what you call it or how you pay. HMRC and an employment tribunal both look at the substance of the relationship, not the label. The questions that point towards employment are roughly:

• Do you tell them when to turn up, what to do, and how to do it?
• Do they have to do the work themselves, rather than sending someone else in their place?
• Do you provide the stall, the stock, and the equipment?
• Is the work regular and ongoing rather than one off?

The more of these that are "yes", the more likely the person is your employee. (Substitution is the big one: someone who can freely send a replacement is much more likely to be genuinely self employed.)

If they are an employee, two things follow.

**Whether you must register as an employer.** You need to register with HMRC and operate a PAYE scheme once you cross a pay threshold. Since April 2025 the trigger is the **secondary threshold**, not the older Lower Earnings Limit. For the 2025/26 tax year the relevant weekly figures are: £125 a week (Lower Earnings Limit), £175 a week (secondary threshold, the registration trigger), and £242 a week (the point employee National Insurance starts). Registration is free, does not itself create a tax bill, and must be done before the first payday. There are also conditions that force registration regardless of pay, such as the person already having another job, which is very common with casual helpers.

**What registering commits you to.** Once you have an active PAYE scheme you must run payroll using recognised software, report each payment to HMRC on or before payday under Real Time Information, deduct any tax and National Insurance due, and meet National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage rates. Free software exists (HMRC's Basic PAYE Tools) for employers with up to 10 staff. None of this is dramatic, but it is ongoing, so it is worth being sure you have genuinely crossed into employment before taking it on.

A note worth knowing: a free lunch or a bag of stock at the end of the day is a nice gesture, but it does not count towards minimum wage and cannot be used to top up someone's pay to the legal rate.

A simple way to decide

Ask yourself one honest question: am I sharing a day with someone who is helping me out, or have I taken someone on to work for me? If it is the first, keep a record, tell them to declare the income, and get on with your fair. If it is the second, or if you are not sure, that is the moment to use HMRC's free Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool or have a quick word with an accountant. Getting the status right up front is far cheaper than unpicking it later.