Do brands have a duty of care to influencers?

The internet can be a pretty rough place, especially for content creators who win high profile partnerships that bring them to the attention of online trolls. Throwaway lifestyle critiques and even threats by keyboard warriors can have a lasting impact on creators’ mental health. Should brands be stepping in to help?

Yes. And there’s much more for brands to consider if they are to truly look after the individuals helping them deliver KPIs.

Today I had a really interesting conversation with Caitlín McGonagle from the brand and influencer pairing platform AnotherTrip HQ. They want to promote transparency about agreed campaign outputs AND the taxable value of products, experiences and fees being offered in return for content.

This chat came on the back of my viral post highlighting HMRC’s 2025 guidance on the tax implications of press trips and experiences for UK influencers.

In the past few months Another Trip has been watching the Irish government’s Revenue Office trawling social media for #AD and similar hashtags to uncover people involved in campaigns who may not be declaring tax on this kind of non-monetary income.

While I’ve seen no evidence of this in the UK (hit me up if you have), surely HMRC is considering similar methods of getting its cut of the multi-million pound influencer industry?

And this is where I come back to duty of care. How many PR and marketing people include the value of ‘freebies’ in their pitches to content creators? Or even make it explicit that this value must be declared as taxable income?

The count in my inbox is a big fat zero.

I believe there’s a huge education piece here for the PR and marketing industry. You don’t have to pay creators if your budget doesn’t allow – although how ethical is it that the person fronting your campaign isn’t getting paid when you are? But as a minimum you should be making them aware of ASA guidelines on disclosing advertising and the tax implications of receiving physical and non-physical products in return for coverage.

Imagine being a content creator who took £5,000 worth of all expenses paid press trips last year and created a mountain of content in their own time to be approached by HMRC asking for £1,000 in unpaid taxes? If that was me, I would be pretty distraught.

One more thought. If side hustle sales platforms like Vinted can alert sellers to their potential tax liability, there’s no excuse for this not to be built into campaign agreements with content creators and influencers.