Do I pay tax on Vinted sales in the UK?
Selling your own unwanted clothes on Vinted is usually different from running a reselling business. The tax question normally depends on whether you are simply clearing personal possessions or buying, making or sourcing items with the intention of selling them for profit.
Important information
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Who this guide applies to
- Vinted sellers
- eBay resellers
- Depop users
- Facebook Marketplace sellers
- People clearing personal possessions
- People buying items to resell for profit
Common costs to consider
- postage
- packaging
- platform fees
- stock purchases
- travel to source items
- payment processing fees
- storage costs
Selling personal items vs trading
The most important distinction is whether you are selling personal possessions or trading. If you sell clothes, shoes, bags or accessories that you originally bought for yourself or your family, that is usually more like clearing personal items. If you regularly buy stock from charity shops, wholesalers, car boot sales, outlet stores, online bundles or other sellers with the aim of reselling for profit, HMRC may view the activity differently. Frequency, intention, organisation and profit motive all matter. A person selling ten old jumpers after a wardrobe clear-out is in a different position from someone buying branded clothing each week, photographing it, listing it, tracking profit and reinvesting proceeds into more stock.
The £1,000 trading allowance
The trading allowance can cover up to £1,000 of gross trading income in a tax year. Gross income means sales before deducting postage, packaging, platform fees or stock costs. This is where many Vinted sellers get confused. If your trading sales are £1,050 and you spent £600 on items, your gross trading income is still above £1,000. If your activity is trading and your gross income is above the allowance, you may need to tell HMRC and decide whether to deduct actual allowable expenses or use the trading allowance. You generally do not claim both for the same income. Sellers with low costs may compare the allowance against actual costs, while resellers with stock, postage and fees may prefer actual expenses.
Examples of casual selling and reselling
A casual seller might list clothes they no longer wear, old shoes, children clothes or accessories from their own wardrobe. They are not buying stock to sell and they may not be trying to make a profit overall. A reseller might buy bundles of clothes, split them into separate listings, research sold prices, photograph stock, use keywords, package orders and repeat the process regularly. Another seller might begin casually but gradually move into trading by sourcing items specifically for resale. There is no single magic number of sales that decides the answer. The more organised, repeated and profit-focused the activity becomes, the more important it is to keep records and check the tax position.
What records should Vinted sellers keep?
Keep a simple record of sale dates, sale prices, platform fees, postage, packaging and the cost of any stock bought for resale. If you are only clearing personal items, records still help show what happened if you later need to explain the activity. If you are trading, records become essential. Save screenshots, platform reports, postage receipts, packaging receipts and purchase evidence for items bought to resell. It can also help to record whether each item was a personal possession or stock bought for resale. A simple spreadsheet with columns for item, date bought, cost, date sold, sale price, fees, postage and profit can be enough at an early stage.
Common Vinted tax mistakes
Common mistakes include looking only at profit instead of gross trading income, ignoring postage charged to buyers, assuming platform reporting means HMRC has taxed the income, and mixing personal clear-outs with trading stock without notes. Some sellers also forget that reselling across several platforms may need to be considered together. If you sell on Vinted, eBay, Depop, Facebook Marketplace and Etsy, your total trading income may matter, not only one app. Another mistake is treating every clothing purchase as stock after the event. If an item was genuinely bought for personal use and later sold, that is different from buying with the intention of reselling.
Using a reseller tax calculator sensibly
A reseller tax calculator can help estimate possible Income Tax, National Insurance and take-home profit, but it is only as useful as the figures entered. Use gross sales from trading activity, then add relevant expenses such as stock costs, postage, packaging, platform fees and travel costs. If you also have PAYE income, remember that extra profit may be taxed at your marginal rate. The calculator can help you plan, but it is not a tax return and cannot decide whether each item was personal or trading stock. Use it alongside records, HMRC guidance and professional advice where needed.
How Vinted payouts should appear in your records
A bank transfer from your Vinted balance is not necessarily the same as one sale. It may combine several completed orders, while refunds, postage adjustments or money left in the balance can change the amount withdrawn. A useful record starts with the individual transaction: item, sale date, amount paid by the buyer, any relevant deductions, postage and the date the order completed. Then reconcile those transactions to the balance and bank withdrawals. This avoids treating a transfer between your Vinted balance and bank account as new income, and it helps explain why monthly sales do not exactly match monthly deposits. Download or save the transaction information while it is available. If an order is cancelled or refunded, keep the original sale and the reversing entry rather than deleting the transaction. That produces a clearer audit trail and makes annual totals easier to verify.
Combining Vinted with eBay, Depop and other selling
HMRC reporting is based on the activity and the tax year, not on a separate allowance for every app. If the same reselling trade uses Vinted, eBay, Depop, Facebook Marketplace and direct bank payments, bring the trading income together before checking the gross-income test. Keep platform columns so you can still reconcile each statement. Personal possessions should be marked separately and supported by a short note, especially when they are mixed into an account also used for bought-in stock. If you run genuinely different activities, such as clothing resale and freelance design, the reporting detail may differ, but the trading allowance cannot simply be multiplied by the number of profiles or platforms. A monthly summary showing sales by channel, refunds, stock, postage, packaging and other costs gives a much better view than adding bank deposits in January.
Worked example: wardrobe clear-out becomes reselling
Suppose Mia first sells £650 of clothes bought for her own use. She keeps a simple list identifying those items as personal possessions. Later in the same tax year, she starts buying clothing bundles specifically to resell and makes £3,600 of trading sales. The stock allocated to sold items costs £1,550, postage and packaging cost £420, and other selling costs are £130. Her provisional trading profit using those actual costs is £1,500 before considering her wider tax position. The original £650 clear-out is not automatically converted into stock merely because it used the same account, but Mia needs evidence showing the difference in intention. For the trading activity, the £1,000 test is considered against £3,600 of gross trading income, not the £1,500 provisional profit. She should compare actual expenses with the trading allowance and include any other trading income before deciding what to report.
A practical Vinted tax-year routine
Once a month, export or record completed sales, label personal items and trading stock, attach purchase evidence, and reconcile withdrawals to the platform balance. At the end of the UK tax year on 5 April, total gross trading income separately from expenses and personal clear-out proceeds. If the trading activity needs to be reported, check the Self Assessment registration deadline rather than waiting for the filing deadline. Keep the final spreadsheet, platform reports, receipts, refund evidence and the calculation used to choose actual expenses or the trading allowance. Set aside money based on estimated profit and any PAYE income because the final rate does not depend on Vinted alone. This routine takes less time when done monthly and provides a defensible explanation if the account contains a mixture of old personal possessions and items deliberately sourced for resale.
Selling items for friends or family
If you list somebody else items, record who owned them, the sale proceeds returned to that person and any fee or share you retained. Passing £200 to a friend is not the same as buying stock for £200, and keeping a £20 commission is different from selling your own coat. Use messages, payment references and a short settlement record so the gross marketplace activity can be explained. Regularly selling on behalf of other people for a fee can itself look like a service or trade, even when you never owned the goods. Do not treat the full bank withdrawal as personal income without checking the facts, but do not ignore the commission either. High-value personal items can also raise separate Capital Gains Tax questions in some circumstances, so obtain advice where valuable assets, collectibles or repeated agency selling are involved.
Official references
Frequently asked questions
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