PayoutMath
Tax

UK Side Hustle Tax Calculator (2025/26)

How much tax do you actually owe HMRC on your Etsy / Vinted / YouTube / OnlyFans / DistroKid side hustle? This calculator stacks your side-hustle profit on top of your day-job income, applies the correct marginal rate, adds Class 4 NI on the self-employment portion, and tells you what's actually going to HMRC.

Last verified: 25 April 2026 Source: GOV.UK income tax rates Next review: 25 October 2026
Inputs
Your annual salary before tax, from your main job. Use £0 if you're full-time self-employed.
Net profit — gross income minus the £1,000 trading allowance OR your actual business expenses (whichever you're claiming). The trading-allowance calculator helps you decide which.
Scotland uses six income tax bands (Starter 19% to Top 48%). NI rates are unchanged.
Total income (PAYE + side) —
Personal allowance —
Taxable income —
Tax already deducted via PAYE —
Income tax owed via Self Assessment —
Class 4 NI on self-employment —
Total to pay HMRC —
Side-hustle take-home (after tax + NI) —
Marginal rate on next £1 of profit —
Day-job £30k + £2k Etsy profit (England/Wales/NI)
Main £30,000 PAYE · Side hustle £2,000 profit · Not Scottish

Day job already used your £12,570 personal allowance and put you in the basic-rate band. The £2,000 of side-hustle profit stacks on top at 20% basic rate = £400 income tax. No Class 4 NI (side under the £12,570 lower profits limit). Take home £1,600 of the £2,000.

Day-job £45k + £15k YouTube profit
Main £45,000 PAYE · Side hustle £15,000 profit · Not Scottish

PAYE already in basic band. Side income pushes you into the £50,270+ higher-rate band: £5,270 of side at 20% (£1,054) + £9,730 at 40% (£3,892) = £4,946 income tax. Class 4 NI: £15k - £12,570 LPL = £2,430 at 6% = £145.80. Total HMRC bill £5,091.80. Take home £9,908.20 of the £15,000 — about 66%.

Full-time self-employed £45k
No PAYE · £45,000 self-employed profit · Not Scottish

All income from self-employment. PA covers first £12,570; basic-rate (20%) on the next £32,430 = £6,486 income tax. Class 4 NI: £32,430 at 6% = £1,945.80. Total HMRC £8,431.80. Take home £36,568.20 — about 81% of gross.

Scottish: Day-job £30k + £2k Etsy
Main £30,000 PAYE · Side hustle £2,000 profit · Scottish taxpayer

Scotland’s intermediate rate (21%) applies in the £26,562-£43,662 band, which catches the side-hustle income. £2,000 × 21% = £420. Slightly more than England’s £400 in the same scenario — the difference grows as side income increases.

PA-taper trap: Day-job £105k + £10k consulting
Main £105,000 PAYE · Side hustle £10,000 profit · Not Scottish

Total income £115,000 — well into the £100k-£125,140 PA taper zone. Personal allowance reduced to £5,070 (lost £7,500). The side £10k is taxed at 40% directly (£4,000) plus the lost-PA effect adds another £1,000, total £5,000. You keep half. Marginal rate on the next £1 is 50%.

The most-Googled UK side-hustle tax question is some variant of: “I made £X on Etsy/Vinted/YouTube, how much do I owe?” Most answers online are wrong, or right by accident, because the question depends on your other income. £5,000 of Etsy profit means £1,000 of tax to a £30k earner, £2,000 to a £55k earner, and as much as £2,500 to a £105k earner. The calculator above does the marginal stacking maths properly.

How UK side-hustle tax actually works

Your day job and your side hustle are two separate income streams that HMRC treats as one combined total for income tax purposes:

  1. Personal allowance (£12,570 in 2025/26) — your first £12,570 of total income is tax free. Your day job uses this. Your side hustle doesn’t get a fresh allowance.
  2. Basic rate (20%, £12,570–£50,270 rest-of-UK) — most middle earners are here on their day job. Side-hustle income that fits in the remaining basic band is taxed at 20%.
  3. Higher rate (40%, £50,270–£125,140) — once total income crosses £50,270, every additional pound is taxed at 40%. This is where most side-hustle tax shock happens — your side income gets you into a band you’d never have been in.
  4. Additional rate (45%, above £125,140) — rare for side-hustlers but real.
  5. Personal allowance taper — between £100k and £125,140 of total income, your PA reduces by £1 for every £2 over. Effective marginal rate climbs to 50%+ in this zone.

Class 4 NI runs in parallel on the self-employment portion only: 6% on profits £12,570–£50,270, 2% above £50,270. Your day-job NI doesn’t reduce this; the £12,570 lower profits limit is its own threshold for self-employment income.

“Take-home” after PAYE

Here’s where the calculator helps most: separating “tax already paid via PAYE” from “tax owed via Self Assessment”. Your day job already paid HMRC the income tax on your salary — you don’t owe that again. What you owe via Self Assessment is the additional tax on your side hustle. The calculator computes:

  • The total income tax bill on combined PAYE + side income
  • Minus the income tax already collected via PAYE (your salary’s existing tax)
  • Equals the income tax owed via Self Assessment

Plus Class 4 NI on the self-employment portion. The sum is your Self Assessment payment due.

Scottish vs rest-of-UK

Scotland uses six bands instead of three:

  • Starter rate: 19% (£12,570–£14,876)
  • Basic rate: 20% (£14,876–£26,562)
  • Intermediate rate: 21% (£26,562–£43,662)
  • Higher rate: 42% (£43,662–£75,000)
  • Advanced rate: 45% (£75,000–£125,140)
  • Top rate: 48% (above £125,140)

For a £30k day job + £2k Etsy, the Scottish bill is £20 higher (intermediate vs basic). For a £45k day job + £15k YouTube, the Scottish bill is several hundred pounds higher. Toggle “Scottish taxpayer” above to see your real number.

National Insurance rates are UK-wide (Class 4 NI is the same in Scotland) — only income tax differs.

What goes into “side hustle profit”

The calculator’s “side hustle profit” input is after expenses — gross income minus the £1,000 trading allowance OR your actual business expenses (whichever you’re claiming). The trading allowance calculator helps you decide which method saves more.

Examples: - Etsy: gross sales minus Etsy fees, postage costs, materials. The Etsy fee calculator gives you the per-order figure; total it across the tax year. - Vinted: gross sales minus sourcing cost, packaging, postage, Item Bump fees. The Vinted profit calculator gives the per-item figure. - YouTube/AdSense: gross AdSense payments minus equipment, software, home-office portion of utilities. - Music distribution (DistroKid/Spotify): gross royalties minus DistroKid annual fee, equipment, software. - Tutoring/coaching: gross fees minus travel, equipment, course materials, professional indemnity insurance.

If you’re trading across multiple platforms, total the profit across all of them and feed in the combined figure. (A dedicated multi-platform aggregator will follow.)

Multi-platform sellers: aggregate the income, not the reporting

A common confusion: “Vinted didn’t report me, eBay didn’t report me, Depop didn’t report me — so I don’t owe tax, right?” Wrong. The reporting framework is per-platform; the tax framework is per-person. If you trade £1,500 on Vinted, £1,500 on Depop and £1,500 on eBay — none of them individually reports you — but your combined £4,500 of trading income is well above the £1,000 trading allowance and absolutely creates a Self Assessment obligation. The calculator above takes a single combined-profit figure; sum your platforms before entering it.

Common mistakes
  • Treating the trading allowance like the personal allowance. They’re separate. The £1,000 trading allowance is a deduction from gross trading income (use it instead of expenses if expenses are under £1,000). The £12,570 personal allowance is the tax-free band on your total taxable income and is mostly absorbed by your day job. The trading allowance doesn’t ‘top up’ your personal allowance.
  • Assuming side-hustle profit is taxed at your basic rate. It’s taxed at your marginal rate — wherever it lands when stacked on top of your PAYE. Earning £45k PAYE means your first ~£5k of side-hustle profit is at 20% (still in basic band), but anything above that is at 40% (higher band) until you hit £125,140.
  • Forgetting Class 4 NI on profits over £12,570. A common shock for first-time Self Assessment filers. Class 4 is 6% on self-employment profit between £12,570 and £50,270, plus 2% on profit above £50,270. It’s separate from any NI you’ve paid on your day job. Class 2 NI was abolished for most self-employed in 2024.
  • Confusing total income tax with what you owe HMRC. The calculator above shows three numbers: tax already paid via PAYE (your day job already settled this), tax owed via Self Assessment (the new bit you owe HMRC), and total Self Assessment liability (income tax + Class 4 NI). The ‘total to pay HMRC’ is what hits your bank balance, not the total tax bill.
  • Missing the personal allowance taper above £100k. Once total income (PAYE + side) crosses £100,000, you lose £1 of personal allowance for every £2 over. Side hustles that push you over £100k can have effective marginal rates up to 50% (40% income tax + the ‘cost’ of lost PA at basic rate). The calculator shows your true marginal rate.
  • Using the wrong tax year. UK tax year is 6 April – 5 April. The 2025/26 year ran 6 April 2025 – 5 April 2026; payment deadline 31 January 2027 (with payments on account possibly due 31 July 2026). Don’t confuse this with the calendar-year basis used for HMRC platform reporting.
  • Ignoring Scotland. Scottish taxpayers use six bands (Starter 19% to Top 48%). Most UK calculators only model rest-of-UK rates. The toggle above switches; the maths is meaningfully different in the £26-£43k and £75k+ ranges.
What this calculator doesn't cover
  • Doesn’t model Class 2 NI (effectively abolished for most self-employed from April 2024 — only people opting in for State Pension contributions still pay it voluntarily).
  • Doesn’t model Marriage Allowance, Blind Person’s Allowance, or other niche personal allowance increases. Standard PA only.
  • Doesn’t model dividend income or savings income — those have separate tax treatment and bands. Use HMRC’s full tool if you have meaningful dividends.
  • Doesn’t model student loan repayments. They’re calculated on top of your tax bill at 9% (Plan 2) or 6% (Plan 4) above the relevant threshold. Add separately.
  • Doesn’t include payments on account. If your previous year’s self-assessment was over £1,000 of tax, HMRC requires two interim payments (31 January, 31 July) toward the next year’s bill. The calculator gives you the total liability; payments-on-account split that across the year.
  • Treats the year as complete. Mid-year estimates are approximate — real liability depends on full-year totals.
  • Tax law as of April 2026. The 2026/27 figures (and 2027/28 onwards) may shift if the Chancellor changes thresholds or rates.

Frequently asked questions

Is my side hustle taxed at 20%?

Probably not — it’s taxed at your marginal rate, which depends on where your side-hustle profit lands when stacked on top of your day-job income. £30k day job + £2k side: yes, side at 20% (basic). £45k day job + £15k side: side mostly at 40% (higher rate). £100k+ day job + any side: 40% plus PA-taper effects up to 50% effective. The calculator works out the precise marginal rate for your situation.

Does HMRC know about my side hustle?

If your platform crossed the £1,700 sales OR 30 transactions threshold in a calendar year, yes — under Digital Platform Reporting rules HMRC gets your details from the platform. If you’re under the thresholds, HMRC doesn’t get told directly, but you still owe tax if you’re trading and over the £1,000 trading allowance. Check the HMRC reporting checker for the data side; this calculator covers what you actually owe.

I made £900 from selling on Vinted. Do I owe tax?

Most likely no, for two separate reasons. (1) If you sold personal possessions at a loss, that’s not trading and isn’t taxable regardless of amount. (2) If it is trading income (you bought to resell), £900 is under the £1,000 trading allowance — no tax owed. Run the trading allowance calculator to confirm.

Class 4 NI vs Class 2 NI — what's the difference?

Class 2 was the £3.45/week ‘flat rate’ NI for self-employed people. From April 2024, most self-employed people no longer pay it (you can still pay voluntarily to protect State Pension entitlement). Class 4 is the percentage-of-profit NI: 6% on profits £12,570-£50,270, 2% above £50,270. Class 4 still applies to all self-employed people earning over the LPL. The calculator above shows Class 4.

What about my student loan?

Student loan repayments are calculated separately at 9% (Plan 2) or 6% (Plan 4) on income above the threshold for your plan. They’re due on your total income (PAYE + self-employment). The calculator above doesn’t include these — add them separately if you have one.

Can I deduct my home office, phone, and equipment?

Yes, against your gross side-hustle income, before the figure that goes into this calculator. The ‘side-hustle profit’ input here is net of expenses — already deducted. Use the trading allowance calculator to decide whether to deduct actual expenses or use the £1,000 trading allowance instead, depending on which gives you the lower taxable profit.

Will I get pushed into the higher-rate band?

Maybe. If your day-job income plus side-hustle profit crosses £50,270 (rest-of-UK) or £43,662 (Scotland), the portion above that crosses into higher-rate territory. The calculator shows the split. If your side hustle is steady, you can plan the year — keep it just below the threshold or accept the higher rate on the bit above.

When do I actually pay this?

31 January following the tax year end. So 2025/26 tax (year ending 5 April 2026) is due by 31 January 2027. If your bill is over £1,000, HMRC requires two payments on account toward the next year — half on 31 January, half on 31 July. Get used to thinking of HMRC bills 9 months in advance, especially in your first year.

About this calculator. Maintained by Jordan — a UK seller and creator who actually uses these platforms (Etsy, eBay, Vinted, DistroKid). Built to be accurate, mobile-fast, and honest about its limits. Spot a bug? Email hello@payoutmath.co.uk.