Readers' forum: Rumours

One of my clients has asked for some advice for his daughter. She has a dog-walking business and declares this income on her self-assessment tax return. In her spare time she is a singer and musician and in 2018-19 she started to earn some money from this. Some of this is from gigs in local pubs and events and some is as a busker. I can see that she should declare the income where she is being paid formally but what about the money from busking; is this just a gift? Further this of course gives rise to a related question: must the full amount be taken into account when considering whether her turnover has exceeded the VAT threshold?

On a slightly more complicated matter it seems that some of her songs are receiving a lot of attention on the internet and her father tells me there...