If you buy clothes, trainers or accessories to sell on for a profit, you're running a small business, and HMRC treats you like one. That means keeping records.
The good news is that Vinted bookkeeping isn't hard. You don't need fancy software or an accounting degree. You need a simple, consistent way to log what you bought, what you sold, and what it cost you to sell it.
This guide walks through exactly what to track, why HMRC wants it, how the £1,000 trading allowance fits in, and gives you a ready-made template you can copy today. It's written for people who are genuinely trading, not for someone clearing out their own wardrobe.
If you're not sure which side of that line you fall on, we cover that first, because it changes everything.
Do I even need to keep records for Vinted?
If you're trading, yes. The moment your selling becomes a profit-seeking activity rather than decluttering, HMRC expects you to keep records of your income and expenses so you can report your profit correctly.
You've probably seen the headlines about Vinted "sharing your data with HMRC". That's real, but it's worth being clear about what it does and doesn't mean.
Under rules that took effect on 1 January 2024, digital platforms like Vinted report seller information to HMRC. Vinted has to report you only if, in a calendar year, you made 30 or more sales of goods and received around €2,000 (roughly £1,700) or more. The first reports were due to HMRC by 31 January 2025, covering 2024 activity. (Source: gov.uk, selling goods or services on a digital platform.)
Being reported does not automatically mean you owe tax. As HMRC's Second Permanent Secretary Angela MacDonald put it, "if you are not trading and just occasionally sell unwanted items online, there is no tax due." (Source: gov.uk, no tax changes for online sellers.)
So the data-sharing rule didn't create a new tax. What it did do is give HMRC a clear view of who is trading. If you are, good records are your best protection.
Am I trading or just selling my own clothes?
This is the single most important question, so let's settle it before we talk bookkeeping.
Selling your own unwanted belongings is not trading and is not taxed. Clearing out last season's coat or your kids' outgrown clothes creates no tax bill. (Source: gov.uk, no tax changes for online sellers.)
Buying or making goods specifically to sell on for a profit usually is trading, and the profit is taxable. (Source: gov.uk, selling goods or services on a digital platform.)
HMRC weighs this up using the "badges of trade", a set of factors the courts use to decide whether an activity is a trade. They include your profit-seeking motive, the number of transactions, the nature of the asset, whether you carry out similar transactions, any changes you make to the asset, how the sale is carried out, the source of finance, the interval between buying and selling, and how you acquired the goods. (Source: gov.uk, BIM20205 badges of trade.)
No single badge decides it. HMRC says questions of trade are decided "on the basis of the overall impression gained from a review of all the badges."
In practice, if you're sourcing stock from car boot sales, charity shops, wholesalers or other people's listings, cleaning or repairing it, and reselling at a margin, you're trading. If you're emptying your own wardrobe, you're not. For a deeper look at where the line sits, our guide for Vinted sellers walks through real-world scenarios.
What records does HMRC actually want from a Vinted reseller?
If you're trading, you must keep records of your business income and expenses to complete your Self Assessment tax return. (Source: gov.uk, self-employed records.)
There's no official "Vinted ledger". HMRC cares about substance, not format. A clean spreadsheet is perfectly acceptable. Here's what that spreadsheet needs to capture.
Your income (every sale)
For each item you sell, record:
- The sale date
- A short description of the item (so you can match it to a purchase)
- The sale price the buyer paid
- The Vinted order or transaction reference
Record your gross sales, the full amount the buyer paid for the item, before Vinted takes anything. A common and costly mistake is logging only the money that lands in your bank.
Your stock costs (cost of what you sold)
For each item, record what you paid to buy it. This is your cost of goods. Keep the receipt, the bank entry, or a dated note if you bought at a car boot sale with no receipt. If you can't get a receipt, a contemporaneous note of the date, place and amount is far better than nothing.
Your selling expenses
Log every cost of running the activity: postage, packaging, Vinted's selling fees where they apply to you, mileage to collect stock, and so on. We break these down in the next section.
Supporting documents
Keep bank or PayPal statements, your Vinted payout records, and purchase receipts. These are the evidence behind the numbers. If HMRC ever asks, the spreadsheet is your summary and the documents are your proof.
You can keep all of this on the cash basis, which is the default for sole traders from 2024/25. On the cash basis you record income when the money comes in and expenses when you pay them, rather than by invoice date. (Source: gov.uk, cash basis.) For most Vinted resellers, cash basis is the simpler and more natural fit.
What is the £1,000 trading allowance and how does it work?
The trading allowance lets individuals earn up to £1,000 a year in gross trading income tax-free. (Source: gov.uk, tax-free allowances on property and trading income.)
Note the word "gross". The £1,000 is measured against your total sales, not your profit.
Here's how it plays out:
- Full relief. If your gross trading income for the tax year is £1,000 or less, you don't have to tell HMRC or declare it on a tax return. (Source: gov.uk, tax-free allowances on property and trading income.)
- Partial relief. If your gross income is more than £1,000, you can choose to deduct the £1,000 allowance instead of your actual expenses, or deduct your actual expenses instead of the allowance. You cannot do both. (Source: gov.uk, tax-free allowances on property and trading income.)
You must register for Self Assessment when your gross trading income for the year goes over £1,000. (Source: gov.uk, tax-free allowances on property and trading income.)
The registration deadline is 5 October following the end of the tax year you need to report. (Source: gov.uk, Self Assessment deadlines.) So if you cross £1,000 during 2025/26, you register by 5 October 2026 and file by 31 January 2027.
The practical takeaway: the allowance only beats claiming expenses when your real costs are below £1,000. For most genuine resellers, the cost of stock alone blows past that, so claiming actual expenses leaves you better off. That's exactly why good records matter, and it's why we always keep both numbers side by side for clients.
Which Vinted reseller expenses can I claim?
If your expenses exceed the £1,000 allowance, you claim your actual allowable business costs. To be allowable, a cost must be incurred "wholly and exclusively" for the business. (Source: gov.uk, expenses if you're self-employed.)
Common Vinted reseller expenses include:
- Cost of stock for resale. What you paid for the items you've sold. This is usually the biggest one.
- Postage and delivery. Anything you pay to send items out.
- Packaging. Mailing bags, boxes, tape, tissue, labels.
- Selling and payment fees. Any platform or payment fees that fall on you as the seller.
- Travel and mileage. Journeys to source stock or to the post office. You can use HMRC's simplified mileage rate of 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the year, then 25p per mile after that, instead of working out actual running costs. (Source: gov.uk, simplified expenses.)
- Phone and internet. The business proportion of your bills.
- Use of home. If you sort, photograph, list and pack from home, you can use HMRC's flat rate based on hours worked from home per month: £10 for 25 to 50 hours, £18 for 51 to 100 hours, and £26 for 101 hours or more. (Source: gov.uk, BIM75010 use of home.)
A quick word on stock. Under the cash basis, you generally claim the cost of stock when you pay for it. The cleanest habit is still to match each sale to the item it came from, so you can always see your true margin. We dig into the detail in our guide to bookkeeping services.
What does the Vinted bookkeeping template look like?
Here's a simple structure you can recreate in any spreadsheet. One row per item works well for most resellers because it ties each sale to its cost and shows your margin instantly.
| Date sold | Item | Buyer paid (£) | Stock cost (£) | Postage (£) | Packaging (£) | Profit (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14/04/2025 | Branded hoodie | 28.00 | 9.00 | 3.20 | 0.40 | 15.40 |
| 22/04/2025 | Trainers (used) | 45.00 | 18.00 | 4.50 | 0.50 | 22.00 |
| 03/05/2025 | Denim jacket | 32.00 | 12.00 | 3.20 | 0.40 | 16.40 |
Then keep two running totals at year end:
- A general expenses tab for costs that aren't tied to one item: mileage, phone, use of home, subscriptions.
- A monthly summary that adds up your sales and your costs, so you can see whether you've crossed £1,000 gross and roughly what profit you're carrying.
Three rules make this template bulletproof:
- Log gross sales, the full amount the buyer paid, never just your payout.
- Save the evidence behind every line: receipts, statements, payout records.
- Update it weekly. Ten minutes on a Sunday beats a panicked January reconstruction.
That's it. No software required, though once your volume grows, moving to proper bookkeeping software that's compatible with Making Tax Digital is the natural next step (more on that below).
Illustrative example: working out a Vinted reseller's profit
Illustrative example. Priya resells pre-loved fashion on Vinted as a side hustle in 2025/26. She is clearly trading: she sources stock from charity shops and car boots, cleans and photographs it, and sells at a margin.
Over the year her records show:
| Item | Amount (£) |
|---|---|
| Gross sales (all items) | 6,400 |
| Cost of stock sold | 2,300 |
| Postage | 720 |
| Packaging | 180 |
| Mileage (320 business miles at 45p) | 144 |
| Use of home (12 months at £10) | 120 |
| Total allowable expenses | 3,464 |
Her gross income is £6,400, well over £1,000, so she must register for Self Assessment by 5 October 2026 and file by 31 January 2027.
Should she use the £1,000 trading allowance or claim actual expenses? Her actual expenses are £3,464, far more than £1,000, so claiming actual expenses is the right call.
Her taxable profit is £6,400 minus £3,464, which is £2,936.
That £2,936 is added to Priya's other income to work out any Income Tax. The personal allowance for 2025/26 is £12,570, the amount you can earn before Income Tax applies. (Source: gov.uk, Income Tax rates and allowances.) If Vinted is her only income, the whole £2,936 sits within her personal allowance and no Income Tax is due, but she still has to register, keep records and file the return because her gross income exceeded £1,000.
If she also has a full-time job using up her personal allowance, that £2,936 would be taxed at her marginal rate, 20% in the basic rate band, which is £587.20. You can sense-check figures like this with our self-employed tax calculator and income tax calculator.
The point of the example is simple: without records, Priya couldn't prove her £3,464 of costs, and HMRC could tax her on the full £6,400.
How long do I need to keep my Vinted records?
You must keep your records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. (Source: gov.uk, how long to keep your records.)
So for a 2025/26 return filed by 31 January 2027, you keep everything until at least the end of January 2032.
Digital copies are fine. A folder of scanned receipts, your payout exports and your spreadsheet is a perfectly good archive. Just make sure it's backed up.
One more thing to keep on your radar: Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 must keep digital records and report quarterly using compatible software. The threshold drops to £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and £20,000 from 6 April 2028. (Source: gov.uk, check when to sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.) Most casual resellers are well below these thresholds today, but the records habit you build now is exactly what MTD will eventually require.
Frequently asked questions
Does Vinted report my sales to HMRC?
Only if you cross the reporting thresholds. Under rules effective from 1 January 2024, Vinted must report a seller to HMRC where, in a calendar year, the seller makes 30 or more sales of goods and receives around €2,000 (about £1,700) or more. Being reported does not by itself mean tax is due; what matters is whether you're trading.
Do I pay tax on selling my own old clothes on Vinted?
No. Selling your own unwanted personal items is not trading and is not taxed. HMRC has confirmed there's no tax due when you occasionally sell unwanted items online. Tax only arises if you're buying or making goods to sell on for a profit.
What is the trading allowance for Vinted sellers?
It's a tax-free allowance of up to £1,000 of gross trading income per tax year. If your gross income from reselling is £1,000 or less, you don't need to tell HMRC. If it's more, you must register for Self Assessment, and you can choose to deduct either the £1,000 allowance or your actual expenses, but not both.
What expenses can a Vinted reseller claim?
The cost of stock you've sold, postage, packaging, any seller or payment fees that fall on you, business mileage, the business share of phone and internet, and a flat-rate use-of-home amount. Each cost must be incurred wholly and exclusively for the business.
Can I just use a spreadsheet for Vinted bookkeeping?
Yes. HMRC doesn't mandate a format, only that you keep accurate records of income and expenses and the documents behind them. A simple spreadsheet with one row per sale, backed by receipts and payout records, is perfectly acceptable until your volume justifies dedicated software.
How long do I keep my Vinted records?
At least five years after the 31 January filing deadline for that tax year. For a 2025/26 return filed by 31 January 2027, keep your records until at least the end of January 2032.
Talk to a bookkeeping specialist →
Get your Vinted bookkeeping right from the start
Reselling on Vinted should be fun and profitable, not a January headache. If you're trading and want a clean set of books, a clear answer on the trading allowance, and a Self Assessment return that's done properly, we can help. Talk to a Zmartly accountant about our bookkeeping services and our dedicated support for Vinted sellers, and we'll set you up with a system that takes minutes a week.
