Everyone who earns money from a side hustle in the UK gets a quiet little gift from the tax system.
It’s called the trading allowance. It’s worth £1,000. And a surprising number of people have never heard of it.
Here’s what it is, how it works, and what it means for you.
The basic rule
The trading allowance is a tax-free amount that applies to income from self-employment, selling goods, or providing services. If your total income from these activities is £1,000 or less in a tax year, you don’t need to pay tax on it. In most cases, you don’t need to report it to HMRC at all. (HMRC — Check if you need to tell HMRC about your income from online platforms)
A tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year.
What counts towards the £1,000?
This is where people sometimes trip up. The allowance applies to your total trading income from all sources combined. So if you sell handmade items on Etsy and also do a bit of dog walking on the side, both income streams count together towards that £1,000 figure.
You should also know that the £1,000 is calculated on your gross income — that’s before taking away any costs or expenses. (HMRC — Self-employment (short) notes 2024-25)
You can’t have it both ways
There’s an important trade-off to understand. If you claim the trading allowance, you cannot also deduct your business expenses. It’s one or the other.
For most people earning modest amounts from a side hustle, the £1,000 allowance is simpler and works in their favour. But if your costs are high — say you spend £800 buying stock to generate £1,200 in sales — it might actually work out better to declare your income and deduct your expenses instead. In that case, your taxable profit would be lower than £1,000 anyway.
It’s worth working out which approach suits your situation. (HMRC — Expenses if you’re self-employed)
What if you earn more than £1,000?
You’ll need to tell HMRC. The route for doing this is Self Assessment — an annual tax return where you declare your income and work out what you owe. We cover how that process works in a separate post.
One thing worth watching
The government announced in March 2025 that it plans to raise the Self Assessment reporting threshold for trading income from £1,000 to £3,000. This change is expected within this parliament, though it has not yet come into force. (GOV.UK — Boost for side-hustlers as 300,000 people to be taken out of tax returns)
So the figure to work with right now is still £1,000. Keep an eye on future announcements.
The trading allowance is genuinely useful. It means most people dipping a toe into a side hustle for the first time are not immediately drawn into the tax system. Knowing about it puts you in a much stronger position from the start.
Use our free UK side hustle tax calculator to see whether the trading allowance covers your income — or how much you’d owe if it doesn’t.