Etsy side hustle - When to pay tax

[SilverPiscis]

Hi all,

I have recently started an Etsy shop. I have a hobby that I do for pleasure and as I started to accumulate too many items at home, I thought I may as well sell the items on Etsy.
I also have a full time job and I have been trying to find information on taxes to pay but the information I find is contradictory...in one hand I have read that I have to pay 20% on any profits I make. On the other hand I have read that you can make up to £1,000 without having to declare anything?Anyone knows?

At the moment, I have sold just one item. I know it is difficult and these things can take some time to take off, so say if I make just £30 because I hardly sell anything from now to end of March, would I have to declare that??

At the moment I haven't even registered as self employed or anything of the sort, as it sounds too much for something that may not even work!

Any advice will be much appreciated!

You have to declare as self employed pretty much when you’re doing something with the intention of making money through it. So decluttering onto eBay - no. Charity shopping and reselling on eBay - yes.
you have. 1000 ‘trading allowance’ based on gross income not profit.

you might want to register self employed if you want to offset losses against your PAYE employment which you can do for a year or so

www.gov.uk/guidance/tax-free-allowances-on-property-and-trading-income#insa

Use this checker OP:

https://www.gov.uk/check-additional-income-tax

So I could get up to £1,000 gross income and nor declare anything and no need to be registered as self employed? The trading allowance applies even if you have another full time work?

The thing is, I have no issues registering if I know I can sell a fair bit, but if I sell a ridiculous small amount of items, I really don't want to do it.

Thanks. I will have a look now.

Thank you for that link, very useful!
So it seems that if it is less than £1,000, no need to declare!

I have an Etsy shop and a full time job and I just try not to go over £1000 per tax year so then I don’t have to declare it!

Yea the trading allowance is £1000. This is turnover, not profit, so you cannot deduct anything from it. Still keep records of all incomings and outgoings, because if you have to register as self employed you will need them. This can be a simple spreadsheet for now.
Don't forget, you still need to sell within the realms of the law, so familiarise yourself with the Consumer Contract Regulations and make sure you are fully compliant. That includes things like having your trading address on your seller information and accepting returns.

@DelilahBucket thank you for the information.
Do you really need to share your address and accept exchanges though? This is optional on Etsy and I would think that if it was mandatory, you would have to share it but you don't?. I don't like the idea of sharing my address as this is not a business (al least for now) but my family home.
In regard to returns, I have accepted exchanges but not returns due to the nature of what I sell. I sell jewelry and some of it is occasion jewelry, which makes it more prone to return (after wearing it for the occasion) But Etsy have the option of inly accepting exchanges and not returns, which if it is an option, I guess it is completely legal?

I suggest you read the Consumer Contract Regulations. Yes it's the law. No you cannot use a PO Box address. Yes you have to accept returns, there isn't any way around this. If you sell things like earrings where there is a hygiene concern, sell them in sealed packets and say they must be returned unopened.
Etsy have it all as optional as it doesn't apply to all the countries they allow sellers from. The law that we have to obey is for the UK and EU.
I have been running my business for 13 years and have had my address on display on various selling sites over this time. It's never been an issue.