The short answer
HMRC's own guidance says you're unlikely to pay tax if you sell personal items from your home, like the contents of a loft or garage. That's most people on eBay: old phones, games, kids' clothes, a bike nobody rides. It stays true however many of these you sell.
Tax comes in two ways:
- You're trading, meaning you buy things to sell on for a profit, or you make things to sell. That's Income Tax on your profit once your gross trading income passes the £1,000 trading allowance in a tax year.
- You sold a valuable possession at a gain, for £6,000 or more. That's Capital Gains Tax, and most people still owe nothing (see below).
Am I trading on eBay?
The question is why you got the things you're selling, not how often you sell or which account type you picked on eBay.
- Probably not trading: you're selling things you bought or were given to use. A loft clear-out, upgrading your phone and selling the old one, selling a games collection you've finished with.
- Probably trading: you buy at car boots, charity shops or clearance aisles to sell on; you buy job lots to split; you buy new stock to resell; you make things to sell (crafts, 3D prints, refurbished furniture). HMRC counts items you make for a hobby as trading too.
A private seller account on eBay doesn't make you tax-free, and a business account doesn't by itself make you a trader. HMRC looks at what you actually do. If you're unsure, HMRC's online platforms checker walks through it with examples.
"eBay says it will report me to HMRC"
Since 1 January 2024, UK platforms including eBay must collect sellers' details and report sellers to HMRC once they make 30 or more sales or receive about £1,700 (€2,000) or more in a calendar year. That's why eBay may ask for your date of birth and National Insurance number.
It's a reporting rule, not a new tax. HMRC says the report "does not automatically mean that you owe tax". Someone who sells 60 of their own old things is reported and still owes nothing.
Why eBay's numbers won't match your tax return
eBay must give you a copy of what it reports. If you are trading, don't copy that total onto your return:
- Different year. eBay's report runs 1 January to 31 December. Self Assessment uses the tax year, 6 April to 5 April. For 2025/26 you need your sales from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026, which spans two eBay reports.
- After fees. HMRC says the report shows what you earned "less any fees, commission or taxes deducted by the platform". Your return starts from your gross takings, then you take off costs (eBay fees included) or the £1,000 allowance.
- Not your costs. eBay knows nothing about what you paid for stock, postage or packaging. Those come from your own records.
HMRC is clear that the reports "do not replace your normal business records". Keep a simple record of each sale and cost with its date, and the tax-year split becomes easy.
Four eBay sellers, worked through
Illustrative, using 2025/26 rules:
- Jo clears the loft. 45 sales of her own old things, £3,100 in total. Not trading. eBay reports her because she passed 30 sales, but she owes no tax and doesn't need to register.
- Dev flips a few bargains. He buys at car boots to resell and takes £850 gross in the tax year. He's trading, but under the £1,000 allowance, so it's covered and he generally doesn't need to tell HMRC. He should still keep a record.
- Kerry runs a reselling side hustle. She resells clothes as an eBay business seller: £8,000 gross from 200 orders, £3,500 of stock, postage and packaging, and a £28,000 salary. eBay's fees on clothing come to about £1,272 (11.9% final value fee £952, 40p per order £80, 0.35% regulatory fee £28, plus 20% VAT on those fees £212). Her real costs (£4,772) beat the £1,000 allowance, so her profit is £3,228. At 20% that's about £646 Income Tax, and no Class 4 National Insurance because her profit is under £12,570. She must register for Self Assessment.
- Sam sells a painting. He bought it for £4,600 and sells it for £7,000 (HMRC's own example). That's a possession sold for over £6,000, so he works out his gain: £2,400, less any selling fees. It's under the £3,000 Capital Gains Tax allowance, so if it's his only gain that year there's no tax to pay.
The calculator runs the Kerry sum for your own figures, with eBay's private and business fees built in, and picks the allowance or your real costs automatically.
Valuable items: Capital Gains Tax in brief
- It only applies to a personal possession (or a set, like a coin collection or a run of books by one author) sold for £6,000 or more.
- Cars are exempt, and so are things with a lifespan under 50 years, which covers most watches, clocks and machinery (unless used in a business).
- You're taxed on the gain, not the sale price, and only on total gains above the £3,000 annual allowance.
If you sell a set in parts to different buyers, each part under £6,000 is normally tax-free, but selling parts to the same buyer counts as one sale. Check gov.uk on personal possessions if this is you.
If you are trading: what to do next
- Over £1,000 gross in a tax year: register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the tax year ends (5 October 2026 for 2025/26), then file and pay by 31 January 2027. See our guide to registering.
- Choose allowance or costs: take off either the £1,000 trading allowance or your real costs (stock, eBay fees, postage, packaging), whichever is bigger. You can't do both.
- Missed a deadline? See what it costs in our late penalties guide.
Keeping records
HMRC expects records of income even if you use the trading allowance, and the calendar-year / tax-year mismatch above is much easier with dated records. A free spreadsheet you set up yourself works fine: date, item, sale price, eBay fees, postage, what you paid. If you'd rather not build one, our bookkeeping spreadsheet for eBay, Vinted, Etsy and Depop sellers (£12.99, Excel or Google Sheets) works out each sale's eBay fee with the same fee models as this calculator and totals your tax year. It's made by the same people as this calculator, and it's optional: the calculator stays free.
The same rules apply on Vinted, Depop, Etsy and Facebook Marketplace: it's the trading test and the £1,000 allowance that matter, not the app. See also our Vinted tax guide.