UK Side Hustle Tax Guide 2026/27

Why this one

Online marketplaces now report seller data to HMRC, and a lot of people have had a letter or seen a headline and have no idea whether it applies to them. This guide explains the thresholds, the difference between selling your own things and trading, and what you actually have to do — which for many people is nothing at all. Where there is tax to pay, it works out the real rate on money earned on top of a salary, which is almost never the rate people assume.

What you get

• A guide in 25 chapters, as a PDF
• First: are you even trading?
• The badges of trade, in plain English
• The £1,000 trading allowance, worked properly
• Two different thresholds, often confused
• Why the platforms are reporting you
• How side income is actually taxed on top of a job
• Class 2 and Class 4 when you already pay Class 1
• The child benefit trap at £60,000
• Student loan repayments on side income
• If you are over the line
• What counts as a cost when you sell online
• A full year, worked
• Common situations
• What to tell your employer
• When a side hustle becomes a business
• If HMRC writes to you
• Three more side hustlers, worked
• The records, and the ten minutes a month
• Filing the first return
• If you get it wrong
• Gig work: employed, worker, or self-employed?
• Losses in a side business
• If it keeps growing
• The side hustler’s year, month by month
• The printable checklist

Need more than one? This is also in the UK New Business Starter Bundle 2026/27 (£23.99) — the same files at a lower price than buying them one by one.

Questions