Is your side-hustle about to cost you dear?

As new rules are introduced to give full visibility of who is making how much money by selling online, Flic Everett – partial to a bit of Vinted – considers if it will be even worth it anymore...

If you are selling online the taxman could be coming for you (Depop/Vinted/Getty)

It’s long been a comfort to know that no matter how woeful my freelance income, I can always stick some old dresses on Vinted or eBay and scratch up an easy few quid to tide me over. But since 1 January, selling platforms including Vinted, eBay and Etsy (along with “service” platforms Deliveroo, Uber and Fiverr) have been required to record how much cash sellers are generating and report the figure to HMRC, which will then compare the sums with self-assessment tax returns, allowing them to “check for discrepancies”.

It seems the men in black are coming for your kitsch kitchenalia and screen-printed robins – and the online selling communities aren’t happy.

“I sell party clothes I don’t need, or things I’ve never worn,” says author Rowan Coleman. “It’s not a business, but knowing anything I make might be reported to HMRC takes the fun and ease out of it. As a self-employed person I’d be confused about the implications of future sales.”