Do you pay tax on Vinted and Depop sales? A UK guide

Since 2024, Vinted and Depop have had to send HMRC details of their busier sellers, and stories about a “side hustle tax” come round regularly. The tax rules themselves have not changed. Whether you owe tax depends on what you are selling and why, not on whether the platform reported you. This guide walks through the rules as HMRC sets them out, with a link to the official page for each one.

Decluttering or trading?

This is the question everything else hangs on. GOV.UK puts it simply: you are “unlikely to pay tax if you sell personal items from your home, like contents of a loft or garage”, but “if you buy or make goods to sell at a profit, you’re likely to be trading” (GOV.UK).

How HMRC treats decluttering and reselling

	Decluttering	Reselling
What you sell	Your own clothes and things you no longer use	Stock you bought, sourced or made to sell
Income Tax	Unlikely	Can be due once trading income is over £1,000 a tax year
Reported to HMRC by the platform	Yes, if you hit 30 sales or about £1,700 in a calendar year	Same rule
Do you need to tell HMRC yourself?	Usually not	Yes, once trading income is over £1,000 a tax year

When the line is blurry, HMRC looks at what it calls the badges of trade. These include whether you were trying to make a profit, how many sales you make, whether you changed or repaired items before selling them, how you sold them, and how long you held them. No single badge settles it. HMRC looks at the overall picture.

For a Vinted or Depop seller, the practical signs of trading are buying items to resell (from charity shops, car boots, wholesale or other sellers), selling regularly, and pricing to make a profit.

How the £1,000 trading allowance works

If you are trading, the trading allowance lets you have up to £1,000 of trading income a tax year tax-free, without telling HMRC.

The part most people get wrong: the £1,000 is your gross income, meaning everything buyers paid you before you take off what you spent on stock, postage or packaging. It is not your profit.

Here is an example. Say you spent £600 on stock and sold it for £1,300 over the tax year. Your profit is £700, but your gross income is £1,300, which is over the allowance. So you need to register for Self Assessment. On your return you then choose one of two options:

• Claim the allowance. Take £1,000 off your income, so you are taxed on £300.
• Claim your actual expenses. Take off the £600 you spent, so you are taxed on £700.

You cannot do both, so pick whichever leaves less to pay tax on. If your costs come to more than £1,000, claiming expenses gives you the bigger deduction.

Two more things to know:

• It is one allowance for all your side income. HMRC says the £1,000 covers all your trading income combined (GOV.UK, July 2026). Selling on Vinted and Depop, plus a bit of freelance work, all counts towards the same £1,000.
• Sometimes you register even under £1,000. For example, to claim a loss or to pay voluntary National Insurance. GOV.UK has the full list.

What Vinted and Depop tell HMRC

Since 1 January 2024, online platforms have had to report sellers to HMRC (GOV.UK). You are not reported if, in a calendar year, you make fewer than 30 sales and receive less than €2,000 (about £1,700). Hit either one and you are.

If you are reported, the platform sends:

• your name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number;
• how much you earned in the calendar year, less the platform’s fees, broken down into quarters.

Reports go to HMRC by 31 January of the following year, and the platform has to give you a copy. This is why Vinted and Depop may ask for your National Insurance number.

Two things to keep in mind:

• Being reported is not a tax bill. GOV.UK says it “does not automatically mean you owe tax”. A declutterer who sold 40 old jumpers will be reported, but probably owes nothing.
• The dates do not match. Platforms report the calendar year (January to December). Tax runs from 6 April to 5 April. If you do need to file, work your income out for the tax year rather than copying the platform’s figure.

Key dates if you need to file

If your trading income goes over £1,000 in a tax year, you need to register for Self Assessment by 5 October after that tax year ends. For the 2025 to 2026 tax year (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026), that means:

• Register by 5 October 2026.
• File your return online by 31 January 2027.
• Pay what you owe by 31 January 2027.

Once your bill is £1,000 or more, HMRC may also ask for payments on account towards next year’s bill, due on 31 January and 31 July.

Making Tax Digital, for bigger resellers

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax means keeping digital records and sending HMRC quarterly updates. It depends on your qualifying income: your total turnover from self-employment and property, before expenses.

• Over £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year: you should have started from 6 April 2026.
• Over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026: from 6 April 2027.
• Over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027: from 6 April 2028.

Most side sellers are nowhere near these figures. If reselling is your full-time job, check where your turnover sits, remembering that these figures are before costs.

Selling something valuable

If you sell a personal possession (not trading stock) for more than £6,000, Capital Gains Tax can apply to the gain. A set of things sold together counts as one item. Possessions with a lifespan of less than 50 years are exempt. HMRC does not list clothing by name, but its examples of things that last longer are jewellery, works of art and antiques, so those are the cases to watch rather than a designer coat.

VAT, for the largest shops

You only need to register for VAT if your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in a rolling 12 months (GOV.UK). For second-hand goods, a VAT margin scheme lets you pay VAT on the difference between what you paid and what you sold for, rather than on the full price.

Records to keep

Even if you never go over £1,000, keep a simple record. If you do go over, HMRC expects you to have records of all sales and expenses, and to keep them for at least five years after the 31 January deadline for that year. For a reseller that means:

• every sale, with the date and amount (your Vinted and Depop sales history helps here);
• receipts or notes of what you paid for stock, including car boot and charity shop buys;
• postage, packaging and any other costs you paid yourself;
• the yearly report the platform sends you.

What about the £3,000 limit?

In March 2025 the government announced that the Self Assessment threshold for trading income will rise from £1,000 to £3,000 “within this parliament” (GOV.UK). It has not happened yet, and no date has been set. For now, £1,000 is the figure that counts.

Questions

Do I pay tax if I sell my own clothes on Vinted?

Usually not. Selling your own unwanted things is not trading, and GOV.UK says you are unlikely to pay tax on it. The exception is a single item or set sold for more than £6,000, where Capital Gains Tax may apply.

Will Vinted or Depop tell HMRC about me?

Only if you make 30 or more sales, or receive €2,000 (about £1,700) or more, in a calendar year. If you do, they send HMRC your details and earnings, and send you a copy.

Is the £1,000 allowance based on profit?

No. It is based on gross income, before any costs. If buyers paid you more than £1,000 in a tax year from trading, you need to register, even if your profit was smaller.

I was reported to HMRC. What should I do?

Check whether you were trading. If you were only selling your own things, there is usually nothing to do. If you were trading and your income for the tax year was over £1,000, register for Self Assessment and file a return. If you have missed earlier years, HMRC has guidance on how to put that right.