Short answer: it depends on whether you're decluttering or trading — and on how much you make. Here's how it actually works, in plain English.
HMRC draws a line between two very different things:
So a student selling last year's coat pays no tax. Someone buying bundles at car boots to resell on Vinted for profit may well need to declare it.
Even if you are trading, everyone gets a £1,000 tax-free trading allowance each tax year (6 April – 5 April). If your gross trading income (total sales, before costs) is £1,000 or less, you usually don't need to tell HMRC or pay anything.
Yes — this is the change that caught a lot of sellers off guard. Since January 2024, UK online platforms (Vinted, eBay, Depop, Etsy and others) are required to share seller data with HMRC under new international rules. Platforms report sellers who hit roughly 30+ sales or about £1,700 (€2,000) in a year.
Being reported doesn't automatically mean you owe tax. But it does mean HMRC can see your activity — so your own records should line up with what the platform reports.
If you're over the £1,000 allowance, you're taxed on profit, not sales. Profit is your income minus allowable costs:
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Sale price | £25.00 |
| What you paid for it | – £8.00 |
| Postage you covered | – £3.20 |
| Platform / payment fees | – £0.00 |
| Taxable profit | £13.80 |
Do that for every sale across the tax year and you have your figure. The hard part isn't the maths — it's keeping track of hundreds of small transactions and every receipt.
Log what you paid, mark it sold, and FlipMate deducts the fees and postage automatically — then builds your UK tax-year summary as you go. Free for your first 25 items.
Start tracking free →This guide is general information for UK sellers, not tax advice, and rules can change. Check your own circumstances with HMRC or a qualified accountant before filing.