Selling on Vinted or eBay? The HMRC reporting rules explained
Updated 1 November 2026. General information, not tax advice. Written with AI assistance and checked against GOV.UK.
If Vinted, eBay or Etsy has asked for your National Insurance number and date of birth, or you've seen headlines about an "HMRC side-hustle tax", this is what's actually going on. There's no new tax. What changed is that selling platforms now tell HMRC about their bigger sellers.
Coming up: platforms report each calendar year by the following 31 January. So what you sell between 1 January and 31 December 2026 will be reported to HMRC by 31 January 2027, and you should get a copy of what was sent.
What changed
New rules started in the UK on 1 January 2024. Digital platform operators, meaning the websites and apps you sell goods or services through, may now need to collect and check specific details about you and report them to HMRC. It covers selling goods (Vinted, eBay, Etsy and similar) and services such as freelancing, food delivery, taxi driving, and renting out property or transport.
What the platform will ask you for
If you sell as an individual, expect to be asked for your:
- full name
- address where you normally live
- date of birth
- tax identification number, which in the UK is your National Insurance number
Platforms can ask for other details, like a phone number, to register you or confirm your identity.
Who gets reported: the 30 sales or £1,700 rule
For sales of goods, your details won't be reported if, in a calendar year, you make fewer than 30 sales and receive less than €2,000 (about £1,700) for them.
Put the other way round: make 30 or more sales, or take €2,000 or more, and you should expect to be reported. A big wardrobe clear-out of 35 cheap items can cross the line just as easily as a busy reselling business.
Does being reported mean I owe tax?
No, not automatically. GOV.UK says this directly. You only pay tax on things you sell online if you're trading or making a capital gain.
- Selling your own unwanted things, like the contents of a loft or garage, means you're unlikely to pay tax.
- Buying or making things to sell at a profit means you're likely to be trading, and you'll have to pay tax on your profits.
So 40 old clothes sold on Vinted might be reported but owe nothing, while someone buying stock at car boot sales to resell is probably trading.
If you are trading, what to do next
- Work out your gross trading income for the UK tax year (6 April to 5 April). Platforms report by calendar year, so their figures won't match your tax return. You need your own records.
- Compare it with the £1,000 trading allowance. At £1,000 or less of gross trading income in 2026/27 you usually don't need to tell HMRC. Over £1,000, register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the tax year ends (5 October 2027 for 2026/27).
- Pick the allowance or your real costs. Over £1,000, you can deduct either the £1,000 allowance or your actual costs (stock, fees, postage, packaging), whichever leaves the lower profit. Resellers' real costs are often higher.
- Keep the platform's report as a cross-check. It shows what you earned for the calendar year after fees, commission and taxes, split into quarters. It doesn't replace your own records.
From 2027/28 the allowance is due to rise to £3,000. Our guide on the trading allowance rising to £3,000 explains what that means. It doesn't change anything for 2026 sales.
Practical tips for resellers
- Download your sales history regularly. eBay and Etsy let you export CSV files, and Vinted lets you request a copy of your data.
- Write down what you paid for each item when you buy it. Reconstructing stock costs at year end is painful.
- Keep personal clear-out sales separate from stock if you do both, so you can show which sales weren't trading.
Check whether you need to tell HMRC
The free UK Side-Hustle Tax Quick Check tells you whether you're over the £1,000 line, whether to register, and gives a rough tax figure, based on the 2026/27 rules.
If you sell regularly, the Side-Hustle & Online Seller Profit + Tax Tracker (£14) logs each sale with fees and item cost, has an import helper for Etsy, eBay and Payhip CSV exports and rows copied from Vinted, and compares the allowance with your real expenses by UK tax year.