Do I Need To Pay Tax When Selling Unwanted Items Online?

Wondering whether there is tax on selling that unwanted jumper from Granny?

HMRC continue their focus on targeting areas where they believe more tax can be collected. Their latest campaign is looking at individuals who sell a high value of unwanted items online and checking that such activities are disclosed and taxed as a trade, where appropriate. This has been nick-named ‘side hustle tax’.

To help with this decision of ‘taxable trade’ or ‘tax free activity’, they have given some specific thresholds for what appears to make this activity a trade:

• • More than 30 items sold a year.
  • Total annual sales value over £1,700.
  • Goods are made or bought for resale at a profit.

HMRC launched their Connect super computer a few years ago and it constantly receives data feeds from many external sources, including the most popular online selling platforms. From 31 January 2025, online platforms must collect information on the money made by those offering accommodation, transport and personal services and report the information to HMRC, as well as reporting information about any new users who signed up to the platform in the 2024 calendar year.

So beware… Big Brother is watching you.

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Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.