{"id":6707,"date":"2025-11-19T10:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/?p=6707"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:32:10","slug":"how-to-make-sure-your-christmas-earnings-are-tax-compliant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-make-sure-your-christmas-earnings-are-tax-compliant\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make sure your Christmas earnings are tax-compliant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the festive season approaches, many talented makers are turning their creative skills into a little extra income.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This can range from selling hand-crafted Christmas decorations online to running a weekend market stall.<\/p>\n<p>However, with the rise of side hustles, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has reminded all Christmas crafters to check whether their earnings fall within taxable trading.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What is the <\/strong><strong>\u00a31,000 trading allowance?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Through its Help for Hustles campaign, HMRC is urging anyone earning from festive items to review whether their income exceeds the annual \u00a31,000 trading allowance.<\/p>\n<p>The \u00a31,000 allowance is a tax-free threshold for total trading income in a tax year and should cover all your trading activities combined.<\/p>\n<p>It is based on gross income and if your total exceeds \u00a31,000, you will need to inform HMRC and register as a sole trader.<\/p>\n<p>HMRC also highlights the difference between decluttering and trading, as selling the odd unwanted personal item is generally not taxable.<\/p>\n<p>Activities that do count as trading are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Making items specifically to sell for profit<\/li>\n<li>Running a Christmas market stall<\/li>\n<li>Regularly selling festive crafts online<\/li>\n<li>Upcycling furniture or decorations for sale<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>What to do if you exceed the threshold?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>If your festive side hustle brings in more than \u00a31,000 in the 2024\/ 2025 tax year, you will need to register for self-assessment as a sole trader.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to file your tax return by 31 January 2026 and pay any tax by that deadline.<\/p>\n<p>HMRC also has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/check-additional-income-tax\">free online checker tool<\/a> to confirm whether you need to report your additional income.<\/p>\n<p>However, understanding if you will exceed the threshold can be difficult, but with financial help, you can get ahead of your finances and avoid any costly repercussions in the new year.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Why does this matter?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Recent research published by HMRC found that one in ten people in the UK work within the hidden economy and are unaware that they should be registered for tax.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside this, online marketplaces must also now share data with HMRC for sellers hitting certain thresholds.<\/p>\n<p>Our team of accountants can advise you on whether your festive selling counts as taxable trading and make sure your festive fun does not turn into an unexpected tax bill.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For expert financial advice and support, contact our team today.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the festive season approaches, many talented makers are turning their creative skills into a little extra income.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,125],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6708,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6707\/revisions\/6708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}