eBay Tax UK 2026: HMRC Reporting, VAT and Sales Tax

Short answer: if you’re selling your own unwanted items on eBay, you usually pay no tax, however much you sell. eBay reports you to HMRC once you make 30 sales or receive more than €2,000 (about £1,700) in a calendar year, but that doesn’t mean you owe anything. Tax only applies if you’re trading (buying to resell or making to sell) and your trading income tops £1,000 in a tax year. VAT comes in at £90,000 of business sales.

This guide covers eBay tax for UK sellers: HMRC reporting, private and business accounts, the trading allowance, the VAT eBay charges on its fees, and what happens to VAT and US sales tax when you sell abroad. For other marketplaces, see Vinted tax and Etsy tax.

Do you pay tax on eBay sales? Find your situation

Your situation	eBay reports you to HMRC?	Tax?	What to do
Private seller clearing your loft, under 30 sales and under about £1,700 a year	No	No	Nothing
Private seller clearing your loft, 30+ sales or over about £1,700	Yes	Usually no	Give eBay your National Insurance number. No tax return needed
Selling one personal item for more than £6,000 at a profit	Probably	Possibly Capital Gains Tax	Check the £6,000 rule
Reselling or making to sell, trading income £1,000 or less in the tax year	Depends	No	Keep records. Switch to an eBay business account
Reselling or making to sell, trading income over £1,000	Very likely	Income tax on profit	Register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the tax year
Business sales over £90,000 in any 12 months	Yes	Income tax and VAT	Register for VAT within 30 days of the month you went over

Does eBay report to HMRC?

Yes. Since 1 January 2024, eBay has had to follow the UK’s digital platform reporting rules, set out in the Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023. They’re based on the OECD’s model rules and match the EU’s DAC7 system. Vinted, Etsy, Amazon and other marketplaces follow the same rules.

eBay explains the details on its UK digital sales reporting help page:

	eBay’s reporting rules
Who gets reported	UK sellers with 30 or more sales, or more than €2,000 of sales (eBay quotes roughly £1,707) in a calendar year
When	Each January, for the previous calendar year. The first report covered 2024 and went in by 31 January 2025
What eBay asks you for	Your National Insurance number (or company details for business sellers), date of birth and address, and your VAT number if you have one
What eBay sends HMRC	Your identity details, bank account number, number of sales and amount paid in each quarter, and fees charged each quarter
What you get	A copy of the report eBay sends HMRC
If you ignore the request	eBay says it will block payouts if you don’t respond within 30 days of being asked

Only sellers under both limits are left out. 31 small sales of £3 each gets you reported. So does one £2,000 sale. HMRC’s guidance for platforms confirms the two tests apply together.

The figure eBay reports leaves out postage paid to eBay, VAT, fees, coupons, cancellations and returns, so it won’t match what landed in your bank account. It also covers a calendar year, while income tax works on the tax year (6 April to 5 April). If you need to file, you work out your own tax-year figures.

Being reported doesn’t mean you owe tax

HMRC is clear on this. Its press release No tax changes for online sellers says the rules don’t create a new tax, and that people who aren’t trading and occasionally sell unwanted items have no tax to pay. The reporting threshold and the tax threshold are separate things. Plenty of people clearing out a house will cross 30 sales without owing a penny. You can check your own position with HMRC’s online platforms checker.

How much can you sell on eBay before paying tax?

The answer depends on what you sell, not how much:

What you’re selling	How much before tax?
Your own unwanted belongings (clothes, toys, old electronics, loft contents)	No limit. Usually no tax, because there’s no profit and you’re not trading
A personal item worth more than £6,000 (jewellery, art, antiques)	Capital Gains Tax may apply to a gain on that item
Things you buy to resell or make to sell	£1,000 of takings a tax year, covered by the trading allowance
Trading income over £1,000	Tax on profit, once your total income is over your £12,570 personal allowance

Selling your own things vs trading

You’re trading if you buy things with the aim of selling them at a profit, or make things to sell. HMRC weighs up the “badges of trade” in its Business Income Manual (BIM20205): profit motive, how often you sell, what you sell, whether you change the items, how you sell them, how you paid for them, how long you held them and how you got them.

On eBay, the clear signs of trading are:

• buying job lots, car boot finds or clearance stock to relist
• refurbishing, repairing or upcycling items to sell for more
• selling the same new item repeatedly
• buying something one week and relisting it the next

Selling the contents of your loft, garage or a family member’s home isn’t trading, even if it runs to hundreds of listings.

Personal possessions and Capital Gains Tax

The rules on Capital Gains Tax on personal possessions rarely bite on eBay:

• No CGT on a personal possession sold for £6,000 or less.
• No CGT on things with a limited lifespan (a predictable life of 50 years or less), which covers most electronics, clothes and household goods, or on your car.
• Sets, like a matching collection sold in pieces, count as one item for the £6,000 test.
• Only the gain is taxed, and the first £3,000 of gains in a tax year is tax-free (gov.uk).

So CGT is mostly a question for sellers of jewellery, art, antiques, coins or rare collectables that have gone up in value.

The £1,000 trading allowance and Self Assessment

If you’re trading, the £1,000 trading allowance means the first £1,000 of trading income in a tax year is tax-free and doesn’t need reporting. Our trading allowance guide has the details. Remember:

• It’s takings, not profit. Item price plus postage you charge, before eBay fees and stock costs.
• It’s one allowance across all your trading. eBay, Vinted, Etsy and the market stall share the same £1,000.
• Over £1,000, claim the allowance or your real expenses, not both. Resellers almost always do better claiming real costs: stock, eBay fees and VAT on them, postage, packaging.
• Register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the tax year you went over (gov.uk). File online and pay by 31 January.

Your profit is added to any salary. Income tax is 20% at the basic rate once your total income is over £12,570 (gov.uk). Class 4 National Insurance at 6% applies to self-employed profits over £12,570 (gov.uk). See allowable expenses for online sellers for what you can claim.

The government has announced plans to raise the point at which trading income needs a full tax return from £1,000 to £3,000, with a simpler online service for people in between. That isn’t in force yet, and HMRC says the new service is expected by 2029. For now, over £1,000 means Self Assessment.

Watch this date: these figures are current on 28 October 2026, the day of the Autumn Budget 2026. We’ll update this page if the Budget changes any of them.

Private vs business seller accounts on eBay UK

eBay’s account type is a separate question from your tax position, but the two usually line up.

	Private seller	Business seller
Who it’s for	People selling their own unwanted items	Anyone who buys to resell, makes to sell, or runs a business
Selling fees (UK buyers)	None on most sales since 1 October 2024 (300 free listings a month, then 35p each). Buyers pay a Buyer Protection fee instead	Final value fee, mostly 9.9% to 12.9% by category, plus 30p or 40p per order and a 0.35% regulatory operating fee
VAT on fees	Included in the fee at 20%	Added on top at 20%
International fee	3% of the sale total	1.05% to 2.0% depending on destination (1.8% for the US and Canada)
Consumer rights	Limited	Full: 14-day cancellation, returns rules, business details in listings

Sources: eBay’s private seller fees and business seller fees pages. eBay’s business seller policy says you must register as a business if you sell items you bought to resell, make items to sell, or buy items for your business. eBay can ask accounts that look like trading to upgrade, and restrict them if they don’t.

The free selling for private sellers makes it tempting to stay private while reselling. Don’t: it breaks eBay’s rules, and HMRC sees your sales data either way. Having an eBay business account doesn’t on its own mean you must register with HMRC. That depends on the £1,000 rule.

VAT on eBay fees

eBay is a UK VAT matter even if you’re not VAT-registered, because eBay charges VAT on its fees:

• Private sellers: fees are shown including VAT at 20%. eBay’s monthly invoice splits it out, so £10 of fees shows as £8.33 plus £1.67 VAT.
• Business sellers: the fee tables are shown excluding VAT, and eBay adds 20%. A 0.35% regulatory operating fee costs 0.42% with VAT.
• The fees are worked out on the full order total, including postage and any taxes, so VAT on a sale also attracts fees.

What you can do with that VAT depends on your status:

Your status	What the VAT on eBay fees means
Not VAT-registered	It’s a cost. Include the full amount, VAT and all, in your expenses for Self Assessment
VAT-registered, standard accounting	You can usually reclaim it as input VAT on your VAT return, using eBay’s monthly invoice
VAT-registered on the Flat Rate Scheme	You can’t reclaim it separately. See Flat Rate Scheme for e-commerce

eBay’s tax policy asks business sellers to keep their legal entity, VAT ID and addresses up to date, because those details decide how tax on fees is charged.

When eBay collects VAT itself

There’s no “sales tax” in the UK. The equivalent is VAT, and eBay only collects it in specific cases. Its UK and EU VAT obligations page sets these out:

Sale	Who accounts for the VAT?
UK seller, goods in the UK, UK buyer (the normal case)	You, if you’re VAT-registered. eBay doesn’t collect it
Overseas seller, goods in a UK warehouse, UK buyer	eBay
Goods shipped into the UK from abroad, parcel worth £135 or less	eBay
Goods shipped into the UK from abroad, over £135	The buyer pays import VAT to the carrier
UK seller to an EU buyer, parcel worth €150 or less	eBay collects EU VAT through its IOSS number. You must give eBay’s IOSS number to your carrier
UK seller to an EU buyer, over €150	The buyer pays VAT and duty at import

The key point for UK sellers: eBay does not collect UK VAT on your UK sales. Once you’re VAT-registered, you charge and pay VAT on them yourself. If the carrier doesn’t get eBay’s IOSS number for an EU order, your buyer may be charged VAT a second time on delivery. See selling to EU consumers from the UK.

eBay and US sales tax

If you sell to buyers in the USA, two separate charges come into it.

US sales tax: eBay handles it. eBay is a marketplace facilitator. It calculates, collects and pays sales tax on orders shipped to US states with marketplace facilitator laws, whether the seller is in the US or abroad. You can’t opt out, there’s no charge for it, and you don’t need to register in any state (eBay: taxes and import charges). For background, see our US sales tax guide and the foreign sellers’ guide.

US import duties: not covered by sales tax. The US suspended its $800 de minimis exemption for all countries on 29 August 2025 (White House) and has kept it suspended since. Every parcel to a US buyer now goes through customs and may owe duty, whatever its value. eBay’s US tariffs page for UK sellers says:

• Through the Global Shipping Programme, buyers see a price that includes duties and fees at checkout, and eBay handles customs. eBay recommends it.
• Outside the programme, carriers usually collect duty and fees from the buyer after checkout. If the buyer won’t pay, the parcel generally isn’t delivered.
• Royal Mail international services to the US are disabled on eBay Labels, so you’d have to buy that postage elsewhere.
• Accurate tariff codes and country of manufacture help parcels clear without delays.

Our guides to selling to US customers from the UK and the end of Section 321 de minimis go into duties in detail.

VAT registration at £90,000 and the margin scheme

Once your business sales go over £90,000 in any rolling 12 months, you must register for VAT. The VAT threshold guide explains the rolling test.

• It’s turnover, not profit, and it includes postage you charge buyers.
• All channels count: eBay, your own website, Amazon, Vinted, Etsy, market stalls.
• Personal items sold from your own home don’t count. They’re not business sales.

Many eBay businesses sell second-hand stock: refurbished phones, used camera gear, vintage clothing, collectables. Charging 20% VAT on the full sale price of items you bought without VAT would be ruinous. The VAT margin scheme lets you pay VAT on the difference between your buying and selling price instead, at one-sixth of the margin. See our margin scheme guide.

Worked examples

Dev clears his parents’ loft in Cardiff

Dev uses a private eBay account to sell the contents of his parents’ loft during 2026: old games consoles, records, toys and kitchenware.

• Items sold in 2026: 45
• Total received: £2,300
• Most expensive single item: a box of vintage consoles, £420

eBay asks Dev for his National Insurance number and reports him to HMRC in January 2027, because he made more than 30 sales and received more than about £1,700.

Does he owe tax? No. He isn’t trading: these are family belongings, not stock bought to sell. No single item came close to £6,000, and consoles are wasting assets anyway. He paid no final value fees, because UK private sales to UK buyers are fee-free. No Self Assessment is needed.

Sam runs an eBay business from Manchester

Sam buys trainers and retro tech at car boots and clearance sales and resells them through an eBay business account. Sam isn’t VAT-registered. Figures for the 2026 to 2027 tax year:

	Amount
Sales, including postage charged to buyers	£24,000
Stock	£11,500
Postage paid to couriers	£2,400
Packaging	£300
eBay fees from monthly invoices, excluding VAT	£2,950
VAT on those fees at 20% (£2,950 × 20%)	£590
Total expenses	£17,740

• Taxable profit: £24,000 − £17,740 = £6,260

Because Sam isn’t VAT-registered, the £590 of VAT on eBay fees is a real cost and goes in with the fees. Claiming the £1,000 trading allowance instead would leave £23,000 taxable, so real expenses win easily. Sam registers for Self Assessment by 5 October 2027 and files and pays by 31 January 2028.

One of Sam’s sales is a pair of trainers to a buyer in Ohio for £150 including postage. eBay adds Ohio sales tax at checkout and pays it to the state. Sam never sees it and has no US filing. The 1.8% international fee for US buyers on that order is about £2.70 plus VAT. Sam ships through the Global Shipping Programme, so the buyer paid US import charges at checkout.

Sam’s business grows past £90,000

Two years later, Sam’s rolling 12-month sales reach £92,000, so Sam registers for VAT. Most stock is second-hand, bought from private sellers with no VAT charged, so Sam uses the margin scheme.

A used camera bought for £220 sells for £400:

• Margin scheme: (£400 − £220) × 1/6 = £30.00 VAT
• Normal VAT: £400 × 1/6 = £66.67 VAT

Sam is now VAT-registered on standard accounting, so the 20% VAT on eBay’s fees can be reclaimed as input VAT on each return.

eBay tax checklist

1. Decide whether you’re trading. Your own belongings: you’re almost certainly fine. Stock bought or made to sell: you’re trading.
2. Use the right eBay account. Trading means a business account.
3. Answer eBay’s tax information request within 30 days, or payouts may be blocked.
4. Track trading income by tax year (6 April to 5 April) across every platform.
5. Download eBay’s monthly invoices. The fees and the VAT on them are expenses, or reclaimable input VAT once you’re registered.
6. Over £1,000 of trading income? Register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the tax year.
7. Shipping to the US? Use the Global Shipping Programme or a carrier that handles US customs.
8. Heading towards £90,000? Plan for VAT, and look at the margin scheme for second-hand stock.

Where GoodVat fits in

GoodVat doesn’t do Self Assessment or income tax. An accountant or your bookkeeping software handles that side. We handle VAT once an eBay business gets big enough to need it:

• Tracking your rolling 12-month turnover across your channels and warning you before you cross £90,000. Our eBay integration is coming soon. Until then, we can work from your eBay sales reports alongside live integrations like Shopify, Amazon and Etsy.
• Registering you for VAT with HMRC
• Calculating VAT correctly on each sale, including margin scheme stock
• Filing your Making Tax Digital VAT returns, with EU and US obligations handled where you sell abroad

Is your eBay business heading for VAT?

Tell us where you sell and roughly what you turn over. We’ll show you when you’re likely to cross £90,000, whether the margin scheme suits your stock, and what VAT registration means for your prices. Then we handle registration and returns for you.

Ask a tax expertor email hello@goodvat.com

A real person replies within one business day

FAQ

How much can you sell on eBay before paying tax?

If you’re selling your own unwanted things, there’s no limit and normally no tax, because you’re usually selling for less than you paid. If you buy items to resell or make items to sell, you can take in up to £1,000 a tax year tax-free. Above £1,000 of trading income you register for Self Assessment and pay income tax on your profit.

Does eBay report sales to HMRC?

Yes. Since 1 January 2024, eBay has had to report UK sellers who make 30 or more sales, or receive more than €2,000 (about £1,700), in a calendar year. It sends HMRC your name, address, National Insurance number, bank account, and your sales and fees for each quarter, by 31 January of the following year.

Do you pay tax on eBay sales?

Only if you’re trading or make a taxable gain. Selling your own used belongings is not taxed in almost all cases. Buying to resell or making to sell is trading, and profits are taxed once your trading income is over £1,000 a tax year and your total income is over your personal allowance.

Does eBay charge VAT on its fees in the UK?

Yes. Private sellers’ fees already include VAT at 20%. Business sellers’ fees are listed without VAT, and eBay adds 20% VAT on top. Your monthly eBay invoice shows the VAT, and VAT-registered businesses can normally reclaim it on their VAT return.

Does eBay collect sales tax on sales to US buyers?

Yes. eBay calculates, collects and pays US sales tax as a marketplace facilitator on orders shipped to US states with marketplace facilitator laws, whether the seller is in the US or not. You don’t register or file anything for it. US import duties are separate and apply to every parcel since the US ended its de minimis exemption on 29 August 2025.

Do I need an eBay business account?

Yes, if you buy items to resell, make items to sell, or already run a business. eBay’s business seller policy requires it, and it’s separate from HMRC. Selling your own unwanted items can stay on a private account, however many you sell.

When do eBay sellers need to register for VAT?

When your taxable business sales across all channels go over £90,000 in any rolling 12 months. The test uses turnover, including postage you charge, not profit. Selling your own possessions doesn’t count. VAT-registered sellers of second-hand goods can often use the margin scheme to pay VAT only on their margin.

Related guides

• Vinted tax for UK sellers: the same HMRC reporting rules, for wardrobe clear-outs and resellers
• Etsy tax for UK sellers: Etsy fees, VAT on fees and what Etsy collects for you
• The £1,000 trading allowance: when it covers you and when to claim expenses
• VAT margin scheme for second-hand sellers: VAT on your margin, not the full price
• Selling to US customers from the UK: duties, tariffs and US sales tax for UK sellers
• VAT threshold 2026: how the £90,000 rolling test works
• Selling to EU consumers from the UK: IOSS and the €150 limit