Selling Pokémon cards in the UK is taxed in one of two ways, and most sellers never reach either. If you are trading, buying cards to sell at a profit, your first £1,000 of gross trading income each tax year is covered by the trading allowance. If you are selling your own collection, you are usually outside Income Tax altogether, and Capital Gains Tax applies only to items sold for £6,000 or more. This guide covers both, plus what platform reporting means and what Whatnot UK and eBay UK charge. Facts are as of 17 October 2026.
Trading or selling your collection?
HMRC decides whether you are trading with the “badges of trade” in its Business Income Manual (BIM20205). There are nine:
- Profit-seeking motive
- The number of transactions
- The nature of the asset
- Existence of similar trading transactions or interests
- Changes to the asset
- The way the sale was carried out
- The source of finance
- Interval of time between purchase and sale
- Method of acquisition
No single badge settles it. A collector in England who sells a binder of childhood holos once is selling personal possessions; GOV.UK says that “if you’re selling personal possessions you probably do not have to pay Income Tax on these.” Someone who buys booster boxes every week, rips them live on Whatnot UK and sells the hits within days ticks the profit motive, the number of transactions, the way the sale is carried out and the short interval. That looks like a trade. Grading is a change to the asset, so sending raw cards off to be slabbed before resale points the same way.
The £1,000 trading allowance
The trading allowance is a tax exemption of up to £1,000 a year on trading income. Two details catch card sellers out:
- It is measured on gross income, meaning what buyers paid you, not profit. If your gross trading income for the tax year is £1,000 or less, you normally do not need to tell HMRC.
- It replaces expenses. Above £1,000 you choose: deduct the £1,000 allowance from your income, or deduct your actual expenses. You cannot do both. GOV.UK notes that if your expenses are more than your income, claiming expenses may be better.
You get a single £1,000 allowance per tax year, however many platforms you sell on.
Worked example: allowance or expenses
A seller has £2,400 of gross trading income in 2025-26 from Whatnot UK and eBay.
Seller A bought most of that stock: £1,500 of cards and sealed product, £180 of fees and £120 of postage and supplies, £1,800 in total.
| Trading allowance | Actual expenses | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross income | £2,400 | £2,400 |
| Deduction | £1,000 | £1,800 |
| Taxable profit | £1,400 | £600 |
Expenses win by £800.
Seller B sold cards pulled years ago with little recorded cost, so expenses are only £300. The allowance route gives £1,400 taxable profit, while expenses give £2,100. The allowance wins by £700.
That is why records matter. Without receipts for what each card or box cost, the allowance is often the only deduction you can support. Pullsheet’s Tax tab shows both figures side by side.
The £3,000 reporting threshold is not law yet
On 11 March 2025 the government announced that the Self Assessment reporting threshold for trading income would rise from £1,000 to £3,000 gross “within this parliament”. It has no legislated start date, and HMRC’s Tax Help for Hustles site says the new online reporting tool is “on the way by 2029”. We found no confirmation in the November 2025 Budget. Until a date is set, the £1,000 figure applies, and the trading allowance itself is not changing.
Platform reporting: the 30 sales rule
Since 1 January 2024, platforms have collected seller data under the Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/817). The first reports, for 2024, went to HMRC by 31 January 2025.
You are left out only if you make fewer than 30 sales of goods in the calendar year and receive no more than €2,000 (about £1,700). Reach 30 sales, or go over €2,000, and you are reported. Note the calendar year: the rule runs January to December, while the tax year runs 6 April to 5 April.
GOV.UK is clear that this is information, not a bill: the platform must give you a copy of what it reported, and that “does not automatically mean that you owe tax.” Forty sales of £5 commons is £200 of income, reported, and probably covered by the allowance or not trading at all.
Capital Gains Tax and the £6,000 chattels rule
If you are not trading, a card is a personal possession (a chattel) for Capital Gains Tax:
- Sold for less than £6,000: no CGT. A loss is worked out as if you sold it for £6,000.
- Sold for £6,000 to £15,000: marginal relief. Subtract £6,000 from the proceeds, multiply by 1.667 (five-thirds), and use that figure if it is lower than the actual gain.
Example: a slabbed card bought for £1,000 sells for £9,000. The actual gain is £8,000. Marginal relief gives (£9,000 − £6,000) × 1.667 = £5,001, which is lower, so the gain is £5,001. After the £3,000 annual exempt amount (2025-26 and 2026-27), £2,001 is taxable at 18% (£360.18) or 24% (£480.24), depending on your income.
Sets are treated as one item when sold to the same person or connected people. GOV.UK’s examples are chessmen, books by the same author and matching china. Whether a complete card set or a master set counts as a set is fact-specific; HMRC’s guidance does not mention trading cards.
Self Assessment deadlines
For the 2025-26 tax year (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026):
| Step | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Register for Self Assessment if you have not before | 5 October 2026 |
| Paper return | 31 October 2026 |
| Online return | 31 January 2027 |
| Pay the tax owed | 31 January 2027 |
What Whatnot UK and eBay UK charge
Fees are a deductible expense if you claim expenses rather than the allowance.
Whatnot UK charges a commission of 6.67% at the base tier for TCG and Sports, falling with your sales over the previous four weeks, plus processing of 2.42% + £0.25 per order on everything the buyer paid. If you are not VAT-registered, Whatnot adds 20% VAT on both fees. On a £60 card, ignoring postage for simplicity: commission £4.00, processing £1.45 + £0.25 = £1.70, VAT £1.14, for £6.84 in total and £53.16 to you. The Whatnot fee calculator handles the tiers and postage.
eBay UK private sellers pay no final value fee and no per-order fee; buyers pay a Buyer Protection fee instead, which is not your cost. Business sellers pay 10.9% for Collectables, a 0.35% regulatory operating fee and £0.30 per order (£0.40 above £10, since 12 February 2026), all on the total including postage. On a £60 order that is £6.54 + £0.21 + £0.40 = £7.15. We could not confirm whether trading cards get eBay UK’s reduced 10p per-order fee for selected Collectables categories, or how VAT applies to business seller fees. The eBay card fee calculator covers both.
If your activity is a trade, list on eBay as a business seller. A trader who keeps a private account to avoid fees is still trading for tax.
For the US side of the same questions, see Whatnot taxes, and for working out what a box of cards cost per card, card break cost basis.
This guide explains HMRC’s published rules; it is not tax advice, so check your own position with HMRC or an adviser.