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2026/27 Tax Year

Side Hustle and Self Assessment Checker

Use this as a first-pass check if you sell online, freelance, create content, or pick up casual paid work on top of your main job and want to know whether HMRC is likely to expect action.

Dates for this page: this checker is framed around the 2026/27 tax year running from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. If you need to tell HMRC for that year, you would normally do so by 5 October 2027, with filing and payment usually due by 31 January 2028.
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Your side-income setup

For trading income, HMRC's entry point is based on gross income before claiming expenses.
Likely next step from these inputs
Trading allowance may cover this Keep records and use the HMRC checker if anything else is going on.
Gross side-income in view£0
Position against the £1,000 trading allowance£0
Likely reporting route-
Tell HMRC by5 Oct 2027
Tax year covered6 Apr 2026 to 5 Apr 2027
Return and payment deadline31 Jan 2028
Best next local pageSelf-employed toolkit

What this means

For a small side-income stream that looks like trading, the first quiet threshold is the £1,000 trading allowance. That does not override other reasons HMRC might still expect a return.

Sole trader tax calculator

Worked examples — see the maths on real numbers

How the £1,000 trading allowance interacts with PAYE earnings, and when side hustle income requires Self Assessment.

Ben — full-time PAYE plus Etsy shop

Day-job salary£35,000
Etsy gross sales£3,500
Etsy fees + materials£1,200
Net Etsy profit£2,300

The maths:

  1. Trading allowance £1,000 — Ben can claim either £1,000 flat OR actual expenses (£1,200)
  2. Actual expenses give better result here: £1,200
  3. Taxable Etsy profit: £3,500 − £1,200 = £2,300
  4. Self Assessment required (gross income > £1,000)
  5. Income tax: his £35,000 salary already uses the £12,570 Personal Allowance, and £22,430 of taxable salary + £2,300 of profit = £24,730, still inside the £37,700 basic-rate band, so £2,300 × 20% = £460
  6. Class 4 NI: £0. Class 4 is only charged on profits above £12,570, and his profit is £2,300
  7. Class 2 NI: nothing to pay, as profits are below the Small Profits Threshold (£7,105 in 2026/27); voluntary Class 2 is optional and only matters if the year would not otherwise count towards the State Pension (his PAYE job may already give him a qualifying year)

Result: Ben's additional tax bill is £460 on top of his PAYE deductions, all of it income tax. For 2026/27 income he registers for Self Assessment by 5 October 2027, then files online and pays by 31 January 2028. If his Etsy sales had been £1,000 gross or less, no Self Assessment would be needed.

Yusuf — full-time PAYE, casual eBay seller below threshold

Day-job salary£42,000
eBay gross sales for the year£820
Personal items being sold (not trading)Yes — items he bought himself
Trading allowance£1,000

The maths:

  1. Test 1: is he "trading"? Selling personal possessions occasionally is generally not trading
  2. Test 2: even if trading, gross income £820 < £1,000 trading allowance
  3. Either test means no Self Assessment required
  4. CGT consideration: personal items sold for under £6,000 each are CGT-exempt (chattels rule)

Result: Yusuf has no tax to pay and no Self Assessment requirement. It is worth keeping basic records (item, sale price) in case HMRC ever asks. Under the UK reporting rules for digital platforms, which started on 1 January 2024 (the first reports were due by 31 January 2025), platforms such as eBay report details of sellers and their sales income to HMRC each January and give each seller a copy. A platform does not have to report a seller who makes fewer than 30 sales of goods in a calendar year for a total of no more than 2,000 euros (about £1,700), so if Yusuf made fewer than 30 sales his £820 may not be reported at all. The reporting rules did not change what tax is due.

Figures use 2026/27 UK tax-year rates and thresholds. Always verify against your specific payslip or tax statement before acting.

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What this page is checking

This is a routing page, not a substitute for HMRC's own checker. It is designed to separate the common cases people confuse:

Sources and assumptions

GOV.UK check if you need to tell HMRC about additional income HMRC guidance on online-platform and side-hustle income GOV.UK check if you need to send a Self Assessment tax return GOV.UK who must send a tax return GOV.UK Self Assessment deadlines

This page uses the current HMRC guidance that trading income above the £1,000 trading allowance can mean you need to tell HMRC, while selling unwanted personal possessions is usually different unless Capital Gains Tax comes into view.