Sell secondhand clothing on Vinted. Calculate UK tax on your Vinted earnings, plus what HMRC sees under the post-January-2024 digital platform reporting rules.
⚠️ HMRC Note: Selling your own personal items at a loss is NOT taxable, no matter how much you make — HMRC has confirmed this. Buying-to-resell for profit IS trading income: if profits exceed the £1,000 trading allowance, register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the tax year ends.
Estimated annual income from Vinted (before expenses)
Average: £500–£10,000/yr (occasional sellers) · £10,000–£40,000/yr (trading)
Vinted charges sellers nothing. In Vinted's own words: “There are no fees for uploading your items or selling them on Vinted” — when a sale completes, the full listed price lands in your Vinted Balance. The Buyer Protection fee you see at checkout is paid by the buyer, on top of your price, and Vinted states it is usually 3–8% of the item price plus a fixed £0.30–£0.80, varying with the item, order value and whether it's a bundle.
The only money Vinted ever takes from a seller is optional promotion: item bumps and Wardrobe Spotlight. Those are deductible business costs if you're trading. Because the fee sits on the buyer's side, a higher listed price does make the buyer's checkout total climb faster than your price — worth remembering when you price against eBay or Depop listings, where the seller absorbs a 10–15% fee instead.
| Your listed price | Buyer pays (approx.) | You receive |
|---|---|---|
| £5 | £5.45 – £6.20 | £5.00 |
| £10 | £10.60 – £11.60 | £10.00 |
| £20 | £20.90 – £22.40 | £20.00 |
| £50 | £51.80 – £54.80 | £50.00 |
Because Vinted takes no selling fee, profit per item is simple: what the buyer paid you, minus what the item and its costs came to. Worked example — you buy a jacket for £4 at a charity shop, list it at £18, and it sells. Postage is paid by the buyer, packaging cost you 50p, and you didn't bump the listing. Your profit is £18 − £4 − £0.50 = £13.50.
That calculation only matters for tax if you're trading — buying to resell, making items to sell, or selling at volume with a profit motive. Selling your own clothes for less than you paid for them isn't trading, produces no taxable profit, and never needs declaring, whatever the total. If you are trading, track profit per item across the year: it's the number that goes on your Self Assessment, after choosing between actual costs and the £1,000 trading allowance.
The declutterer — sells £2,500 of their own wardrobe over the year, everything for less than it originally cost. Not trading, so nothing to declare and no tax, regardless of the amount. Vinted may still report the account to HMRC once it passes 30 sales or ~€2,000, but a report is not a tax bill.
The dabbler — flips car-boot finds for £950 of total sales in the tax year. That's trading, but gross trading income is under the £1,000 trading allowance, so there's nothing to register or declare — provided total gross trading income across ALL platforms stays at £1,000 or less.
The regular reseller — £8,000 of Vinted sales, £3,000 of stock and costs, alongside a full-time job on £30,000. Deducting actual costs beats the £1,000 allowance, leaving £5,000 profit taxed at the basic rate: £1,000 of Income Tax. No Class 4 National Insurance is due, because Class 4 only starts once self-employment profits alone pass £12,570. Use the calculator above to run your own numbers.
