On 20 July 2018 the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) published its latest paper in relation to the taxation of workers who operate on a self-employed basis via online platforms. Broadly such arrangements cover workers who, for example, provide services (the gig economy) or those who sell spare resources (the sharing economy) through an online platform.

Workers operating via online platforms represent a significant growth area in the UK. It is estimated that there are now well in excess of a million workers in the UK in the gig economy alone. Self-employment as a whole now accounts for about five million workers in the UK, up from around 3.3m in 2001.