Your earnings, your tax
Payments received through Gyftup do not all have the same tax treatment. A genuine personal gift can be treated differently from a tip, a payment for goods or services, creator income or business takings. What matters is why the payment was made, what you provided in return, your relationship with the payer, and whether the activity is organised or repeated. This page gives general UK information only, not advice about your situation.
This is general information, not advice about your situation. Tax rules change and circumstances differ. For anything that matters, speak to a qualified accountant.
The numbers, at a glance
Tax year 2026/27, which began on 6 April 2026. England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland sets its own income tax bands.
Which of these are you?
The rest of this page assumes you are trading. Find yourself here first, because for several of these that assumption is wrong.
Someone who knows you sent you a treat or money for a wishlist item, with nothing expected back. A genuine gift arising from a personal relationship is generally not trading income and generally does not go on a Self Assessment return. What can change that: the payment being connected to work you did, to a service you provided, or to a business you run; or the giving being organised, public and repeated rather than personal. Little of the rest of this page is aimed at you.
Tips are taxable, but how they are taxed depends on who collects and distributes them, not on the amount. Where an employer or a tronc arrangement handles distribution, PAYE and National Insurance are usually dealt with there and the money reaches you already taxed. Do not assume you have to declare tips through Self Assessment. Check your payslip, and ask your employer or troncmaster before filing anything.
Where a tip reaches you through Gyftup, we divide your venue's tip pool equally between team members at the venue's instruction and pay your share to your own connected account. We do not operate payroll and we do not operate a tronc, so nothing is deducted before it reaches you and the money is not already taxed when it arrives. Whether it should be taxed through your employer's payroll or declared by you depends on your employment arrangements, so tell your employer you are receiving tips this way and ask how they should be reported.
Payments for a shout-out, a print, an hour of your time or anything else you provide are generally trading or miscellaneous income, and the thresholds and deadlines below do apply. Track your gross receipts, refunds, fees and allowable costs. The £1,000 trading allowance may cover a small year, with conditions set out below.
Sales through Gyftup are business takings and go into your normal accounting and VAT position. Reconcile gross order value, our fee, the provider fee, refunds, tips and payouts. A limited company does not use the individual trading allowance, and most of the self-employed sections below are not written for you.
This depends on the purpose of the pool, your relationship to the contributors, whether anything was supplied in return, who owns the money before it is released, and what it is used for. Those combinations differ enough that general guidance is not much use. If a pool is substantial, repeated, public, or raised for someone other than yourself, take advice before filing. Anything framed as charitable needs separate care.
The label a payment carries on Gyftup does not decide its tax treatment. What matters is why it was made and what, if anything, was provided in return.
Do you need to file?
This section, and everything after it, is written for people with trading or other untaxed income. If the gift or tips box above described you, much of it will not apply.
You must send a Self Assessment return for a tax year if any of these applied to you:
- Your gross trading income was more than £1,000 across all your trades. That is income before expenses, so a year of small payments for things you provided can reach it without feeling like a business. It does not count genuine personal gifts, and it does not apply in the same way to companies or partnerships. Exceptions include income from an employer, or from a company or partnership you are connected to. Above £1,000 you can claim the allowance instead of your actual expenses, not as well as them, and you may need or want to file below £1,000 anyway. Keep records either way.
- You were a partner in a business partnership.
- You owed Capital Gains Tax on something you sold or gave away.
- You owed the High Income Child Benefit Charge and do not pay it through PAYE.
- You had other untaxed income: property, tips, commission, savings interest, dividends, or income from abroad.
If you are not sure, HMRC has a short questionnaire that is a good place to start. It is linked at the bottom of this page. For anything unusual, or where more than one of the situations above applies to you, it is worth asking an accountant rather than a form.
Making Tax Digital is live
Since 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 must keep digital records and send HMRC a summary every quarter using compatible software. A once-a-year return is no longer enough for them.
The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027, and to £20,000 from April 2028. Qualifying income is your combined self-employment and property turnover, so several small income streams can add up to it between them.
If this applies to you, being in MTD also changes which late payment penalties you face. Both sets are below.
Deadlines for the 2025/26 tax year
| Date | What happens | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 5 October 2026 | Register for Self Assessment | First time filing for the 2025/26 tax year. Miss it and a penalty can follow. |
| 31 October 2026 | Paper returns due | Midnight. Only if you file on paper. |
| 30 December 2026 | Optional earlier online date | File by now and HMRC can collect tax under £3,000 through your PAYE code instead. |
| 31 January 2027 | Online returns and payment | Midnight. The one that matters for almost everyone. |
If you make payments on account, the second one is due 31 July.
Registering, step by step
- Check whether you actually need to Use HMRC's questionnaire first. It takes a couple of minutes and saves registering for something you do not need.
- Register online Self-employed people use form CWF1; everyone else uses SA1. Have your National Insurance number, date of birth, address and income details ready.
- Wait for your UTR Your Unique Taxpayer Reference arrives by post, usually within 15 working days, or 21 if you are abroad. It often shows in the HMRC app sooner.
- File your return Sign in with your UTR and submit before 31 January 2027.
- Pay what you owe Same deadline. Filing and paying are two separate things, and each carries its own penalty for being late.
Penalties
Filing late and paying late are penalised separately. You can incur both at once.
Filing late
- £100 the moment you are a day late, even if you owe no tax at all.
- £10 a day once you are 3 months late, for up to 90 days, so up to £900 on top.
- 5% of the tax due, or £300 if greater, at 6 months.
- The same again at 12 months.
Paying late
There are two regimes now, and which one you are in depends on Making Tax Digital.
Standard Self Assessment
Most people, including anyone under the MTD threshold.
- 5% of the unpaid tax at 30 days
- 5% again at 6 months
- 5% again at 12 months
Making Tax Digital
Anyone required to use MTD, or volunteering early.
- 3% of what is outstanding at 15 days
- 3% more at 30 days
- 10% a year, accruing daily, from day 31
In your first year under this regime you get 30 days to pay or agree a payment plan before any penalty starts, not 15. The 3% and 3% figures are for 2026/27 and rise to 4% and 4% for 2027/28. There is no penalty for missing a 2026/27 quarterly update, though the updates are still needed before you can file.
Interest is charged on unpaid tax on top of any penalty, under both regimes.
These figures change at each Budget and tax-year boundary. Check the current position on GOV.UK before relying on them, and speak to an accountant about your own situation.
Income tax rates 2026/27
| Band | Income | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Allowance | Up to £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | Over £125,140 | 45% |
National Insurance if you are self-employed
- Class 4 is 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% on anything above that.
- Class 2 is often described as abolished. It is not, quite. The requirement to pay it went in April 2024 for anyone with profits above £12,570, but the class still exists and can be paid voluntarily at £3.65 a week for 2026/27.
If your self-employed profits are £7,105 or more for 2026/27, Class 2 contributions are treated as paid. The year counts towards your State Pension even though you do not pay anything, and Class 4 only starts above £12,570.
Below £7,105 the year may not count on its own. Paying Class 2 voluntarily at £3.65 a week is the cheap way to fill that gap, and it is a decision worth making on purpose rather than by accident.
Should you get an accountant?
Worth it once any of the following is true: your income comes from several places, you are unsure what counts as an allowable expense, you have property, investments or overseas income, you run a limited company, or you would simply rather not carry it. A good one usually finds more than they cost.
Both the ACCA and the ICAEW run directories of qualified accountants.
Software
If you are in Making Tax Digital you need software that can file to HMRC. If you are not, it is optional but makes January much shorter. QuickBooks, Sage, Xero and FreeAgent are all widely used by UK sole traders. Rather than take a recommendation from us, check HMRC's own list of compatible software, linked below, because a package that cannot file is no use to you.
What Gyftup gives you
- Export your earnings. A full record of everything you have received, ready to hand to an accountant or type into your software.
- Transaction history. Every contribution and payout, itemised and dated.
- Live totals. What you have earned so far this year, so the £1,000 threshold is never a surprise in January.
Export your data from your account at any time.
Official HMRC links
Straight from GOV.UK. Copy any of them if you would rather paste the address in yourself than follow a link.
By phone
This page is information, not advice. The figures were correct in August 2026 and tax rules change every year. Your circumstances are your own, and a qualified accountant is the person to ask about them.