Tax question: I am a PAYE customer but I also have a side hustle with no income yet.

No tax refund on expenses. But you only need to pay tax on your profit, not your whole income.

Profit = income minus allowable expenses.

While your profit is less than 5000, you don't need to register as self employed. Instead you go into MyAccount on revenue and declare the profit as extra income.

If your profit is more than 5000, you need to register as self-employed, and complete an income tax return (called a Form 11) each year.

Tax is still due on the profits, no matter what payment method is used 😀

And Revenue inspectors have been known to book personal training sessions, and then later audit and look for the associated declaration for the transaction.

Curious about this practice from Revenue in practicality

You’d have to be setting up the ‘trap’ well in advance, even for a booking in December 2024 the earliest you can practically do a review is early 2026 once their 2024 return is submitted in Nov 2025, if their year end was Oct for example it would be in the Oct 2025 year end for their 2025 return submitted Nov 2026, so review cant be done until early 2027