Since 1 January 2024, UK marketplaces, gig apps, ride-hailing and short-let platforms have had to collect their sellers' details and send HMRC an annual report of what each one earned. Clearing out your own wardrobe is rarely taxable, but buying to resell, making things to sell, providing services or letting property usually is, once gross income goes above £1,000. If past years were missed, telling HMRC first keeps penalties lowest.
What the platforms now report
The Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023, the UK version of an OECD framework, cover platforms for selling goods, personal services (deliveries, taxi rides, freelance work), property lets and transport hire.
The platform must ask each individual seller for their full name, home address, date of birth and National Insurance number. It then reports, for each calendar year, the amounts paid to the seller quarter by quarter, the fees and commission it deducted, the number of transactions and, where it holds them, bank account details. Property hosts also have each listed address reported. The report goes to HMRC by 31 January after the year ends, so the first, for 2024, was due by 31 January 2025. Sellers receive a copy.
There is one carve-out, and it only applies to goods. A seller is left out if they made fewer than 30 sales of goods on that platform in the calendar year and received no more than €2,000 (roughly £1,700). Both conditions must be met, so 30 cheap sales or a single sale above €2,000 is enough to be reported. There is no equivalent exemption for services or lettings: a host with one booking can appear in the data.
Being reported does not mean tax is due
HMRC is clear that the data is a starting point, not an assessment. Income tax arises if you are trading, letting property or receiving other taxable income; capital gains tax can arise on selling a valuable possession. The practical risk is that HMRC now holds a figure for your platform income, and if your return does not match it, or you file none, expect questions.
Platforms report by calendar year, while tax years run from 6 April, so the figures rarely agree exactly. Your own records need to bridge the gap.
Trading, or just decluttering?
Selling your own unwanted belongings for less than you paid is not trading and is not taxed, however many items go. The position changes when the purpose is profit. HMRC and the courts look at the "badges of trade", including:
- whether you bought things with the intention of reselling at a profit;
- how often you sell, and how organised it is;
- whether you repair, improve or repackage items before selling;
- how long you held them and whether you ever used them yourself.
Reselling car boot finds on Vinted, making prints for Etsy or flipping trainers will usually be a trade.
Valuable possessions are a capital gains question instead. A personal item, or a set, sold for £6,000 or less is outside capital gains tax, with marginal relief just above that level. Items with a predictable life of 50 years or less, such as most watches and cars, are generally exempt.
The £1,000 allowances and when to register
The trading allowance exempts the first £1,000 of gross trading income each tax year. It covers all your trades combined: £600 from crafts plus £500 from dog walking is over the limit. Above £1,000 you deduct either the allowance or your actual expenses, whichever is higher.
If you need to file and are new to Self Assessment, you must register by 5 October after the end of the tax year. For 2025/26 that date has just passed, so register now if you have not, then file and pay by 31 January 2027 (see our guide to what is due on 31 January 2027).
Announced but not yet in force: the government has said it will raise the Self Assessment reporting threshold for trading, property and other income to £3,000 gross, with a new digital service for smaller amounts, at some point within this Parliament. We have not found a start date or legislation. It would change how small amounts are reported, not whether they are taxed, and would not alter the platforms' 30 sales / €2,000 rule. For now, the £1,000 rules apply.
Airbnb and short-term lets
Letting income is property income. If you let furnished space in your only or main home, rent-a-room relief exempts up to £7,500 a year (£3,750 each if the income is shared). Letting a separate property may instead fall under the £1,000 property allowance or normal rental rules. The special furnished holiday lettings regime was abolished from April 2025, and property income is due to be taxed at separate, higher rates from April 2027 (see property income tax rates from April 2027).
If you have under-declared
HMRC uses platform data to send letters, often called nudge letters, asking people to check their returns. Past years can usually be put right through HMRC's online Digital Disclosure Service: you notify first, then normally have 90 days to disclose and pay.
How far back HMRC can go depends on behaviour: generally 4 years where you took reasonable care, 6 years where you were careless and up to 20 years where the under-declaration was deliberate. If you never told HMRC you needed to file at all, it can go back up to 20 years even where that was not deliberate, and the penalty rules for failing to notify are different from those below: an unprompted disclosure can still mean no penalty, but only if HMRC learns of it within 12 months of the tax falling due, otherwise the minimum is 10%. Penalties follow the same scale, up to 30% of the extra tax for careless errors, 70% for deliberate ones and 100% where they were deliberate and concealed. In particular, the minimum falls sharply if you come forward before HMRC prompts you: a careless error disclosed unprompted can carry no penalty at all, against at least 15% once HMRC has made contact. If you have already received a letter or an enquiry, we can manage the response.
What to do now
- List every platform you sold or let through since 6 April 2024 and download your annual seller statements.
- Separate personal clear-outs from trading or service income, keeping evidence of original cost.
- Add up gross trading income per tax year. If it is above £1,000, or property income exceeds the relevant allowance, register for Self Assessment now.
- If earlier years are missing, consider an unprompted disclosure before a letter arrives.
- If you have had an HMRC letter, reply within its deadline and take advice before agreeing any figures.
- If the income is growing, plan records early: Making Tax Digital applies above set income thresholds.
Our personal tax service covers returns for side income, and putting past years right. Book a consultation to talk it through.
This article is general information about UK tax, based on the law and HMRC practice at the date shown above. It is not advice, and reading it does not make you our client. Tax rules change and their effect depends on your circumstances, so please speak to us before acting on it.