The HMRC 30-Transactions Rule Explained (Vinted, Depop & eBay)

What is the 30-transactions rule?

It stems from DAC7, an international information-sharing regime that the UK applies to online marketplaces. From 1 January 2024, platforms operating here — Vinted, Depop, eBay and the rest — have had to verify their sellers’ identities and file HMRC a yearly report on anyone crossing either of two tripwires: over 30 transactions in a calendar year, or proceeds above 2,000€, roughly £1,700.

Note the ‘or’: thirty-one £3 sales trigger a report just as surely as a single £2,000 sale. And note the calendar: January to December counts here, not the April-to-April tax year — the reporting year and the tax year are different animals, which catches plenty of sellers out.

Cross a threshold and the platform will request your identity details — it must, since it cannot file without them — then folds you into its annual submission. Most sellers meet this regime for the first time through that verification prompt, not through any letter from HMRC.

The details requested are the standard identity set: legal name, address, date of birth and tax identification number, alongside your payout details. Platforms are expected to check this information rather than simply accept it, which is why the request can feel oddly formal coming from a secondhand clothing app. Once verified, you are rarely asked again unless your details change.

Vinted reported me to HMRC — do I owe tax now?

Not as an automatic consequence. In HMRC’s own words, the reporting creates no new tax and changes none of the existing rules. The submission is information, not an invoice: it tells HMRC you sold a certain volume through a certain platform, and nothing more.

What counts is the nature of what you sold. Emptying your own wardrobe — garments you bought, wore and tired of — is not trading, and no volume of platform reporting can convert it into trading. The report only turns costly where someone was running an undeclared resale trade above the allowance, because HMRC now holds the figures.

What actually decides whether I owe tax on reselling?

Two questions settle it. First: are you trading? Sourcing items specifically to flip for profit — charity-shop raids, wholesale bundles, bulk buys — counts as trading in HMRC’s eyes. Parting with possessions you already owned does not.

Second, if trading applies: did your gross trading income clear £1,000 in the tax year (6 April to 5 April)? Up to £1,000 — measured before costs and pooled across every platform — the trading allowance covers you: no registration, no return, no tax. Crossing £1,000 means registering for Self Assessment, with 5 October after the tax year as the deadline, and filing a return by the following 31 January.

A few companion numbers complete the picture. The first £12,570 of total yearly income sits inside the Personal Allowance, free of Income Tax. And a single personal possession fetching over £6,000 can attract Capital Gains Tax — though a £3,000 yearly CGT allowance applies first. Our full tax guide unpacks each of these at length.

What should you do if a platform asks for your details?

Hand them over — the platform collects them under a legal duty, and holding back simply freezes your selling. Then run a calm personal audit: total your selling across all platforms for the year and decide honestly which side of the trading line you occupy.

If everything you sold was your own old belongings, note the moment and carry on; there is nothing to declare. If you buy to resell and the gross total is marching past £1,000 for the tax year, treat that as your signal to register for Self Assessment and to keep rigorous records — receipts for stock, postage, packaging and fees. The authoritative starting point is gov.uk’s guidance on tax-free allowances on trading income.

Is the trading allowance really rising to £3,000?

You may have seen headlines promising the allowance leaps to £3,000 from April 2027, after the October 2026 Budget. File that under ‘announced’ rather than ‘in force’: at the time of writing, the change has no confirmed start date in legislation and is not yet law.

Until gov.uk itself displays the new figure, plan around £1,000. Should the rise take effect from 6 April 2027 as announced, life gets simpler for small resellers — but building tax plans on press releases is exactly how people get caught out. The updated date at the top of this guide shows when we last verified the number.