If you buy clothes, trainers or homeware to sell on Vinted at a profit, HMRC treats you as a trader, and that means you can deduct the costs of running that little business. The problem is that most resellers either claim nothing, or guess, and end up paying tax on money they never really kept.
This guide is for the active Vinted reseller, not the person clearing out their wardrobe. We'll cover what counts as an allowable expense, the £1,000 trading allowance and when it beats claiming real costs, and a worked example you can copy.
Every figure here is for the 2025/26 tax year and tied to an HMRC source at the end.
What expenses can a Vinted reseller claim?
If you're trading, you can deduct the everyday costs of buying and selling stock, the most common being what you paid for the items, postage, packaging, Vinted's Boost and Bump fees, mileage to source stock, and a share of your phone and home costs. You then pay tax only on the profit that's left.
There's an important split first, though. HMRC does not treat selling your own used possessions as trading at all. As gov.uk puts it, "you're unlikely to pay tax if you sell personal items from your home, like contents of a loft or garage." But "if you buy or make goods to sell at a profit, you're likely to be trading and will have to pay tax." Allowable expenses only matter once you're on the trading side of that line.
If you're not sure which side you're on, our guide to tax for Vinted sellers walks through it in plain English.
Are you actually trading, or just decluttering?
This is the question everything hinges on, because expenses only exist if you're trading.
HMRC looks at the "badges of trade" to decide. The Business Income Manual lists nine of them, including your profit-seeking motive, the number of transactions, the nature of the asset, whether you've changed or improved the asset, the way the sale was carried out, and the interval of time between buying and selling.
In practice, the pattern that says "trade" is buying stock specifically to resell, doing it repeatedly, and aiming to make a profit each time. Selling your old jeans because they no longer fit is not trading, however many you list.
Two quick markers we use with clients:
- Did you buy it to sell it on? Sourcing from charity shops, car boots, wholesalers or clearance to flip on Vinted points firmly at trading.
- Is it regular and profit-driven? A steady stream of similar buy-to-sell transactions looks like a business, not a clear-out.
If you're trading, you'll usually need to register for Self Assessment and report the income. You can estimate the resulting tax with our self-employed tax calculator before you file.
What counts as an allowable expense on Vinted?
HMRC's general rule for the self-employed is that costs must be "wholly and exclusively" for the business. For a Vinted reseller, the allowable categories from gov.uk map neatly onto how you actually operate.
| Expense | What it covers for a Vinted reseller |
|---|---|
| Things you buy to sell on | The price you paid for the stock you list (your single biggest cost) |
| Office costs | Phone bills, stationery, printer ink for labels |
| Travel costs | Fuel, parking, train or bus fares when sourcing stock or visiting a drop-off point |
| Advertising or marketing | Boost and Bump fees you pay Vinted to promote listings |
| Financial costs | Bank charges, business insurance |
| Staff costs | Anyone you pay to help, for example a subcontractor who lists items |
| Costs of business premises | Heating, lighting and rates if you sell from premises rather than home |
A few points worth nailing down:
Stock is only deductible against what you sell. The cost of items you've bought but not yet sold sits in stock, not in your expenses, until they go. You can't write off a wardrobe of unsold inventory at year end.
Postage and packaging are allowable. Mailing bags, tape, labels and the postage you pay are ordinary running costs. Where the buyer pays Vinted's shipping and it never passes through your hands, there's nothing for you to claim, so only deduct postage you actually fund.
Use of home. If you store, photograph and list stock from home, you can claim a reasonable share of your household costs, or use HMRC's simplified flat rate. For 2025/26 the flat rates are £10 a month if you work 25 to 50 hours a month from home, £18 a month for 51 to 100 hours, and £26 a month for 101 hours or more.
Mileage. Rather than working out the running cost of your car, you can use HMRC's simplified mileage rate. For 2025/26 that's 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in cars and goods vehicles, then 25p after that, and 24p per mile for motorcycles.
You can't mix the simplified flat rate and the actual-cost method for the same thing, so pick whichever gives the larger, fair deduction for each.
The £1,000 trading allowance: claim costs or claim the allowance?
Every individual gets a £1,000 trading allowance for 2025/26. It works two ways, and you choose the one that helps you most.
Full relief. If your gross trading income (your total sales before any costs) is £1,000 or less in the tax year, the allowance covers it. As gov.uk says, "if your annual gross trading income is £1,000 or less, from one or more trades you may not have to tell HMRC." Keep records, but there's usually nothing to report.
Partial relief. If your gross sales are over £1,000, you can deduct the £1,000 allowance from your income instead of deducting your actual expenses. The catch from gov.uk is firm: you "cannot deduct any other expenses or allowances if you claim the allowances." It's the allowance or your real costs, never both.
So the decision is simple arithmetic:
- If your real allowable expenses for the year come to more than £1,000, claim actual expenses.
- If they come to less than £1,000, claim the trading allowance and deduct the full £1,000.
For a reseller, stock costs alone usually blow past £1,000 quickly, so claiming actual expenses normally wins. The allowance tends to suit very small or seasonal sellers.
Illustrative example: working out a reseller's profit
Illustrative example. Aisha buys end-of-line clothing to resell on Vinted during 2025/26. The names and figures here are illustrative, not a real client.
Her year looks like this:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross sales (everything buyers paid her for items) | £9,400 |
| Cost of stock sold | £4,200 |
| Postage and packaging she paid for | £760 |
| Vinted Boost and Bump fees | £340 |
| Use of home (flat rate, £18 a month for 12 months) | £216 |
| Mileage sourcing stock (600 miles at 45p) | £270 |
Her total allowable expenses are £4,200 + £760 + £340 + £216 + £270 = £5,786.
Taxable profit is £9,400 − £5,786 = £3,614.
Because her expenses (£5,786) are far more than the £1,000 trading allowance, claiming actual costs is clearly the better choice. If she had wrongly claimed the allowance instead, her profit would have been £9,400 − £1,000 = £8,400, leaving her taxed on £4,786 more than she needed to be.
Aisha's £3,614 profit sits within her personal allowance if she has no other income, but she still has to register for Self Assessment and report it, because she's trading and her gross income is over £1,000. Whether any tax is actually due depends on her total income for the year; you can sanity-check the figure with our self-employed tax calculator.
What about the "30 items or £1,700" platform reporting rule?
You've probably seen the headlines, and Vinted may have asked you for your National Insurance number. This is a reporting rule for the platform, not a new tax.
Under the digital platform reporting rules, gov.uk confirms a seller's details are not reported to HMRC if they make "fewer than 30 sales of goods in a calendar year" and receive "less than 2,000 euros (about £1,700) for those sales." Cross either threshold and Vinted shares your details with HMRC.
Crossing the line does not mean you owe tax. If you're decluttering personal items, there's still nothing to pay. What it does mean is that HMRC can now see your activity, so if you are trading, getting your records and expenses right matters more than ever.
What can't you claim?
A few things trip resellers up:
- Unsold stock. As above, the cost only becomes deductible in the year the item sells.
- Your own personal items. If you list your own used clothes alongside bought-to-sell stock, those personal sales aren't trading income, and you can't claim "costs" against them.
- The trading allowance plus expenses. It's one or the other.
- Personal use proportion. If you use your phone or car privately too, only the business share is allowable.
- Capital Gains Tax on the odd valuable item. Selling a single personal possession for £6,000 or more can bring in Capital Gains Tax, but everyday clothing resold as a trade is taxed as trading profit, not as a capital gain.
Getting this right is exactly the sort of thing we handle for ecommerce clients every day. If your Vinted side hustle has grown into a real income stream, Zmartly can register you, keep the records straight and file your return. Talk to a Zmartly accountant about your Vinted income and we'll tell you plainly what you owe and what you can claim.
FAQs
Do I have to pay tax on everything I sell on Vinted?
No. You only pay tax if you're trading, meaning you buy or make items to sell at a profit. Selling your own used personal possessions is not taxable, however many items you sell. Tax applies to your profit, not your total sales, and only after allowable expenses.
Can I claim the cost of stock I haven't sold yet?
Not yet. The cost of items you've bought to sell becomes an allowable expense in the year the item actually sells. Unsold items are treated as stock at the year end, so you can't write off a full wardrobe of inventory before it's gone.
Should I claim the £1,000 trading allowance or my actual expenses?
Claim whichever is larger. If your real allowable expenses for the year are more than £1,000, deduct your actual costs. If they're under £1,000, claim the trading allowance instead. You cannot claim both the allowance and your expenses.
Vinted asked for my National Insurance number. Does that mean I owe tax?
Not necessarily. Under the digital platform reporting rules, platforms must report sellers who make 30 or more sales or receive more than about £1,700 in a year. It's a reporting requirement on Vinted, not a tax bill. You only owe tax if you're trading and making a profit.
Do I need to register for Self Assessment as a Vinted reseller?
If you're trading and your gross trading income is over £1,000 in the tax year, you'll generally need to register for Self Assessment and report it, even if little or no tax ends up being due. If your gross trading income is £1,000 or less, the trading allowance usually means you don't need to tell HMRC.
