The Trading Allowance and Side Hustle Tax, for Creators
Written and reviewed by the Influencer Accountants editorial team. Last reviewed 28 July 2026.
If you earn anything from content, the first question is not how much tax you owe, it is whether HMRC already knows. Since 1 January 2024 the platforms you earn on report your income straight to HMRC, and the first of those reports landed on 31 January 2025. The old assumption that small online income is invisible is gone.
The rules themselves are not complicated once someone lays them out plainly. This is the £1,000 trading allowance, the point at which you have to register, and the £3,000 change that has been widely misreported.
What the Trading Allowance Actually Is
The trading allowance lets you earn up to £1,000 of gross trading income in a tax year without paying tax on it or telling HMRC. Gross means before expenses. For a creator, trading income covers brand deals, ad revenue, subscriptions, affiliate commission, tips and the value of anything given to you in return for promotion.
If your total from all of that is £1,000 or less across the year, you are done: no return, no tax. Go a pound over and the allowance changes character. You now either deduct the flat £1,000 from your income instead of your real costs, or you claim your actual expenses, whichever leaves you better off. You cannot do both in the same year.
When You Have to Register
Once your gross trading income passes £1,000 in a tax year, you have to register for Self Assessment and file a return. The deadline to register is 5 October after the end of that tax year, so income earned in the year to 5 April 2026 has to be registered by 5 October 2026.
Registering is not the same as owing tax. You might register, file, and owe nothing because your income sits inside your £12,570 personal allowance. But the filing obligation is triggered by the £1,000 income figure, not by whether there is a bill at the end. Our creator self assessment service handles the registration and the return together.
The £3,000 Change and What It Does Not Mean
On 11 March 2025 the government announced that the Self Assessment reporting threshold for trading income will rise from £1,000 to £3,000, expected in the 2027 to 2028 tax year. A lot of coverage read that as a new tax-free amount. It is not.
It is a reporting threshold. Tax is still due on trading income above £1,000. What changes is the paperwork: creators earning between £1,000 and £3,000 will report and pay through a new simple HMRC online service instead of a full Self Assessment return. Above £3,000, nothing changes and you file as normal. So if you read that you can earn £3,000 tax free from content, that is wrong, and acting on it is how people end up with a penalty.
HMRC Already Has Your Platform Data
The platform reporting rules require sites that pay creators and sellers to hand HMRC your gross income together with your name, address and taxpayer reference, once a year. YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Patreon, Etsy and the rest are all in scope.
That means HMRC can match what a platform paid you against what you declared. Undeclared creator income is now one of the easiest things for HMRC to spot, and the letters that follow a mismatch are not fun. The honest position, declared on time, is far cheaper than the one they find for you. If a letter has already arrived, that is exactly the point to get in touch.
What You Actually Owe
On profit above your personal allowance you pay income tax at 20%, then 40% above £50,270, then 45% above £125,140. On top of that, self-employed creators pay Class 4 National Insurance at 6% on profit between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above that.
The figure that matters is profit, not turnover, which is why keeping your expenses in order is the single biggest lever on the bill. Once your income is steady, it is also worth checking whether a limited company would leave you with more.