Tax return for small amount of extra income

A friend has asked me for some advice.

She works a PAYE job but in 2024 earned about 4,000 from doing some contract work for another company. She was paid by cheque and needs to declare this on her tax return,

As it is under 4,000 think she can just declare this as extra income without filing a for 11 or 12?

Are there expenses she can deduct from the amount? The work was done remotely from her own home, involved some design programs that she would have purchased in 2023 (but needed anyway) and took about 100 hours in total.

k06351000 said:

As it is under 4,000 think she can just declare this as extra income without filing a for 11 or 12?

Click to expand...

She should be able to declare it via her Revenue myAccount - which is the equivalent of a Form 12 return.

k06351000 said:

Are there expenses she can deduct from the amount? The work was done remotely from her own home, involved some design programs that she would have purchased in 2023 (but needed anyway) and took about 100 hours in total.

Click to expand...

Probably depends on the nature of the work and the expenses incurred.
Difficult to advise without a lot more detail.
She should get professional advice if necessary but for the sake of €4K gross income it may not really be worth bothering?

Just to follow up on this should this extra income be declared under “untaxed income arising in the state” or “trading profit”?

Basically she did some drawings and plans, invoiced the company and got paid. Not sure if that counts as trading profit. Nothing was bought or sold.

k06351000 said:

Just to follow up on this should this extra income be declared under “untaxed income arising in the state” or “trading profit”?

Basically she did some drawings and plans, invoiced the company and got paid. Not sure if that counts as trading profit. Nothing was bought or sold.

Click to expand...

Trading profit


Untaxed Income Arising in the State: This includes income earned within Ireland that has not been subjected to withholding taxes, such as rental income, investment income, or other non-PAYE earnings not taxed at source


Trading Profit: This refers to profits from a business, trade, or profession. It is calculated as the difference between income generated from trading activities and allowable expenses incurred wholly for the trade

Thanks