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Vinted and tax: what UK sellers actually need to know

By Jamie McKaye · Updated 12 September 2026

Two questions come up in every Vinted group in January. Do I owe tax on what I've sold? And will Vinted tell HMRC about me? The honest answers are shorter than the threads.

This is written for UK sellers by the person who makes RackHut, a records app. It isn't tax advice. Every rule below links to HMRC's own page, with the date that page was last updated, so you can check it yourself.

Selling your own things is not trading

If you're clearing out the wardrobe, the loft, the kids' outgrown stuff, or the things you bought and never wore, HMRC's own words are that you're "unlikely to pay tax if you sell personal items from your home". It doesn't matter how many, and it doesn't matter that some sold for more than you hoped. You bought them to use, not to sell on.

There is one exception, and it almost never touches clothes. Capital Gains Tax can apply when a single possession sells for £6,000 or more. A designer bag that goes for that much, possibly. A bundle of Zara, no.

When it becomes trading

Trading is buying things to sell them on, or making things to sell. HMRC again: "If you buy or make goods to sell at a profit, you're likely to be trading and will have to pay tax on your profits." Charity-shop finds you list the same week, wholesale lots, stock bought new with the tags on to resell, things you make yourself. That's a trade, however small.

Plenty of sellers do both. Your own old jeans in one bag, twenty pairs you bought at a car boot to flip in another. Only the second bag is trading income. This is the whole reason to keep records that say which is which, and there's more on that below.

The £1,000 trading allowance, properly

Once you're trading, the first number that matters is £1,000 of gross trading income in a tax year. Gross means the money in, before you take off what the items cost you or what you paid to post them. The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April.

An example. You sold £1,600 of stock you'd bought to resell. The items cost you £700, and postage and mailers came to £250, so your real costs are £950. Claiming the allowance leaves £600 to declare. Claiming the costs leaves £650. The allowance wins by £50. The year after, with £2,400 of stock behind £3,000 of sales, the costs win by a mile. So the allowance is an alternative to claiming expenses. It is never something you also take off your profit.

Whether any tax is then actually due depends on your other income and your Personal Allowance, which is what the Self Assessment return works out.

The 30-sales rule, and what Vinted actually reports

This is the part that causes the panic, so here it is plainly. Since January 2024, online platforms have had to report certain sellers to HMRC. Vinted reports you if, in a calendar year (January to December), you make 30 or more sales, or you're paid more than 2,000 euros, which is about £1,700. Under both lines, you aren't reported at all.

When you cross a line, Vinted asks you for some details (it may ask for your National Insurance number) and sends HMRC your totals in the January after the year ends. Vinted's own page says "you'll get a copy too, so you'll know exactly what we sent."

Being reported is not a tax bill. HMRC's page and Vinted's say the same thing: the report is information, it isn't a tax, and "selling personal items on Vinted is generally not taxed". Thirty sales of your own old clothes is thirty sales of your own old clothes. The trading question above decides whether you owe anything. The report only tells HMRC you were there.

Two calendars, note. The platform rule counts a calendar year. The trading allowance counts a tax year. They don't line up, which is one more reason to keep your own numbers.

If you're over £1,000: the dates

What's changing

Keep records either way

Even if you'll never owe a penny, records are what let you say so. If HMRC ever asks about a reported year, "it was my own stuff" is an easy sentence with a list behind it and a hard one without. And if you are trading, knowing your number in September is the difference between January being a form and January being a fright.

What you want, per item: what it cost you, what it sold for, what it cost to send, and the date it sold. Per year: the gross, the costs, the expenses (mailers, storage, mileage if you claim it), and Vinted's own report next to your figures.

Where RackHut comes in

This is the only pitch in the guide. RackHut is a notebook for your shop, on your iPhone. Every sale carries what the buyer paid, what the item cost you and the postage, and the Money tab keeps a running line all year: your gross trading income for this tax year against the £1,000 allowance. When you're over it, the tax summary (part of Pro) gives you the HMRC year, gross income, item costs, expenses and what's left, labelled in plain words, plus a spreadsheet of every sale for an accountant. Bring your Vinted data file in and Vinted's own yearly figure sits next to yours, with anything that doesn't match listed.

It keeps records. It isn't tax advice, and it never logs into Vinted. Free for up to 25 items on the App Store.

Sources