The £1,000 trading allowance for resellers: side-hustle tax on Vinted, eBay and Depop explained
Founder of ResellTrack · 400+ users
If you resell on Vinted, eBay or Depop, the number that matters most for tax is £1,000. It is the trading allowance, and it decides whether you need to tell HMRC about your sales at all. It is also widely misunderstood: many sellers think it is £1,000 of profit, or £1,000 per platform. It is neither.
This guide explains how the allowance works for people who sell on several platforms, how to calculate where you stand, and what to do when you go over. Every rule links to the gov.uk page it comes from. If you only sell on Vinted and want the Vinted-specific details, such as the HMRC form Vinted sends, read our dedicated guide to Vinted tax and HMRC.
General information for people who live in the UK, not tax advice. Rules and figures checked on gov.uk, ebay.co.uk and vinted.co.uk in October 2026.
The short answer
The trading allowance is a tax exemption of up to £1,000 a year on trading income. It applies to income before expenses, across all your side hustles combined. If you buy items to resell and your total sales on Vinted, eBay, Depop and elsewhere pass £1,000 in a tax year, you must register for Self Assessment.
What the trading allowance is
HMRC describes it as a tax exemption of up to £1,000 a year for individuals with trading income, which includes self-employment and casual services (gov.uk). If your gross trading income is £1,000 or less, you generally do not need to tell HMRC or file a return for it. You must still keep records of that income (gov.uk).
The allowance runs per tax year, which goes from 6 April to 5 April (Tax Help for Hustles, gov.uk). Platform reporting, by contrast, runs per calendar year. Keep the two calendars apart when you add up your sales.
First question: are you trading at all?
The allowance only concerns trading income. Selling your own unwanted belongings is not trading. HMRC says that if you are selling personal possessions you probably do not have to pay Income Tax on them (gov.uk). The exception is Capital Gains Tax, which can apply if a single item, or a set of items, sells for more than £6,000.
You are probably trading if you sell goods you bought with the intention of selling them at a profit, or goods you made (gov.uk). HMRC's side-hustle campaign gives examples that will sound familiar to resellers: regularly reselling car boot or charity shop finds for profit, and reselling vintage clothing bought wholesale (Tax Help for Hustles, gov.uk).
| What you sell | How HMRC usually sees it |
|---|---|
| Your own clothes, shoes and household items, from time to time | Not trading; usually nothing to tell HMRC |
| A personal item or set sold for more than £6,000 | Not trading, but you may need to report it for Capital Gains Tax |
| Items bought at charity shops, car boots or wholesale to sell on | Trading; the £1,000 allowance applies |
| Things you make or upcycle to sell | Trading; the £1,000 allowance applies |
Many sellers do both: clear out their wardrobe and resell a few finds. Only the reselling counts towards the £1,000. Keeping the two separate in your records makes the sum much easier.
The two rules resellers get wrong
Rule 1: it is income, not profit
The £1,000 limit applies to gross income, which HMRC defines as the total you would put on your tax return before any allowances or expenses are taken off (gov.uk). The campaign site puts it bluntly: it is the amount you earn before factoring in expenses, and it is not the same as profit (Tax Help for Hustles, gov.uk).
For a reseller this is the key point, because stock costs are high. If you buy £800 of stock and sell it for £1,100, your profit is £300, but your trading income is £1,100. You are over the allowance.
Rule 2: one allowance across every platform
You have a single £1,000 allowance for each tax year, shared across all your side hustles (Tax Help for Hustles, gov.uk). HMRC's own example is someone earning £600 on one platform and £900 on another: the total passes £1,000 before expenses, so they need to report it. Spreading sales over Vinted, eBay and Depop, or over several accounts, does not multiply the allowance.
The same pot covers other trading side income too, such as content creation or casual services. Add everything together before you compare it with £1,000.
Working out where you stand
A simple method for a multi-platform reseller:
- Pick the tax year: 6 April to 5 April.
- Export or note your sales from each platform for that period, only for items you bought or made to sell.
- Add the amounts you received for those sales across all platforms, plus any other trading side income.
- Compare the total with £1,000. Do not deduct stock, postage or fees at this stage.
An illustrative example. Over one tax year, a reseller sells resold finds for £450 on Vinted, £380 on eBay and £270 on Depop. Their total trading income is £1,100. Even if their stock cost £700 and their profit is only £400, they are above the allowance and need to register.
Note that on Vinted, and on eBay for UK private sellers, there is no seller fee to take off the sale price: Vinted charges no fees to sell (vinted.co.uk) and eBay charges UK private sellers no final value fee (ebay.co.uk). On Depop, the payment processing fee is an expense, but it does not reduce your gross income for the £1,000 test.
Platform reporting is a separate thing
Since 2024, digital platforms have to send HMRC information about their sellers. They do not report a seller who receives €2,000 (about £1,700) or less from fewer than 30 sales of goods in a year (gov.uk). eBay, for example, says it reports you if your total sales exceed €2,000, roughly £1,707, after fees, or if you complete 30 or more sales, and adds that this reporting does not change your tax obligations (ebay.co.uk). Vinted applies the same thresholds (vinted.co.uk).
Two consequences for resellers:
- Each platform reports separately. You might stay under the reporting threshold on all three platforms and still be over the £1,000 allowance in total. The allowance is your responsibility, not the platform's.
- Being reported does not mean you owe tax. HMRC's campaign notes that platforms share information once you sell 30 or more items, but this alone does not mean you owe tax, and the £1,000 allowance has not changed (Tax Help for Hustles, gov.uk).
Over £1,000: what to do
If your gross trading income is above £1,000, you need to register for Self Assessment by 5 October in the following tax year (gov.uk). For the 2025 to 2026 tax year, that deadline was 5 October 2026; the online return is then due by 31 January 2027, and any tax owed must be paid by the same date (gov.uk).
Allowance or expenses: choose one
Over £1,000, you can still use the allowance: you deduct £1,000 from your income instead of deducting your actual expenses. You cannot do both (gov.uk). For resellers, stock is usually the biggest cost, so actual expenses are often higher than £1,000. Compare both:
| Illustrative case | Using the £1,000 allowance | Claiming actual expenses |
|---|---|---|
| Income £3,000, expenses £600 | Taxable profit £2,000 | Taxable profit £2,400 |
| Income £3,000, expenses £1,900 | Taxable profit £2,000 | Taxable profit £1,100 |
In the first case the allowance is better; in the second, claiming expenses is. HMRC also notes that if your expenses are higher than your income, claiming expenses may be better, since that lets you record a loss (gov.uk).
Will you actually pay tax?
Registering does not always mean paying. Your profit is added to your other income, and Income Tax only applies above the Personal Allowance of £12,570 for the 2026 to 2027 tax year; the basic rate band above it is 20% (gov.uk). Scotland has its own rates. HMRC's campaign makes the same point: tax may be owed only if your total income, including your main job, is above £12,570 (Tax Help for Hustles, gov.uk).
If you have a full-time job, your salary probably uses up the Personal Allowance, so reselling profit is taxed at your marginal rate. Self-employed National Insurance also applies on profits: Class 4 is due on profits over £12,570 a year, and Class 2 is treated as paid if profits are £7,105 or more, with voluntary contributions possible below that (gov.uk).
When you cannot use the allowance
The allowance does not apply in every case. You cannot use it in a tax year if you have trading income from a company you or a connected person owns or controls, from a partnership you or a connected person are in, or from your employer or your spouse's or civil partner's employer (gov.uk). Partnership trading income is excluded too.
There are also cases where you may want to register even under £1,000, for example to claim a loss or to pay voluntary Class 2 National Insurance (gov.uk).
Records to keep from the first sale
It is your responsibility to keep full and accurate records of all sales, income and business expenses, even if someone else deals with HMRC for you (Tax Help for Hustles, gov.uk). For a reseller, that means:
- the purchase price and date of every item you bought to resell, with receipts where you can get them;
- the sale price, date and platform of every sale;
- platform fees you paid as a seller, such as Depop's payment processing fee or paid Bumps on Vinted;
- postage and packaging you paid yourself, and other costs such as cleaning or repairs.
Your employer does not handle any of this. HMRC says it is your responsibility to tell it about money you make on the side, not your main employer's (Tax Help for Hustles, gov.uk). If you owed tax and did not tell HMRC, you may face a penalty, and interest is charged on late payments.
HMRC also says it plans a new online reporting tool for people earning between £1,000 and £3,000 from side hustles by 2029; until then, Self Assessment is the route (Tax Help for Hustles, gov.uk).
What this means for buying decisions
Because the allowance is measured on income, not profit, selling a lot of low-margin stock can push you over £1,000 while earning you very little. That is a reason to buy fewer, better items: pieces that sell at a price that leaves a real margin once you account for the time and, eventually, the tax.
To check what a margin really looks like per item, use our free Vinted profit calculator. For deciding what to buy on Vinted in the first place, ResellTrack analyses observed Vinted sales to show the median sold price and how quickly a brand and category combination sells, so you can judge an item before paying for it. It is a research tool: it does not file anything with HMRC or keep your accounts. The method is set out in our guide to analysing a niche's profitability, and realistic income figures are in how much you can earn from a Vinted niche.
Frequently asked questions
Is the £1,000 trading allowance per platform?
No. You have one £1,000 allowance per tax year, shared across all your side hustles. Income from Vinted, eBay, Depop and any other trading side income is added together before you compare it with £1,000.
Is the £1,000 based on profit or sales?
On sales. HMRC measures the allowance against gross income, before expenses. If you sell £1,200 of stock that cost you £900, your profit is £300 but your trading income is £1,200, so you are over the allowance and need to register.
How much can I sell on eBay without paying tax in the UK?
Selling your own personal items is usually not taxed, unless a single item or set sells for more than £6,000. If you buy to resell, you can earn up to £1,000 of trading income a year, across all platforms, without telling HMRC. Above that, you register for Self Assessment.
Do I need to tell HMRC if I earn less than £1,000?
Generally not, as long as you can use the allowance. You still need to keep records of that income. You may choose to register anyway, for example to claim a loss or pay voluntary Class 2 National Insurance.
Does being reported by Vinted or eBay mean I owe tax?
No. Platforms report sellers who make 30 sales or receive about £1,700 in a calendar year, but reporting alone does not mean you owe tax. What matters is whether you are trading and whether your trading income passes £1,000.
Can I use the trading allowance and claim expenses?
No, it is one or the other. If your income is over £1,000, you either deduct the £1,000 allowance or your actual expenses. Resellers with high stock costs often find that claiming actual expenses gives a lower taxable profit.
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