Influencers and content creators: when free products count as income
Paid posts, platform payouts, subscriptions and the products brands send you are all income in HMRC’s eyes. What counts, the allowance that helps, and the records to keep from your first paid post.
For most creators the money starts small: a brand sends a product to review, a platform starts paying for views, a few followers subscribe. It can be a long time before it feels like a business. HMRC’s view is simpler. If you make content and are paid for it, in money or in kind, that is trading income.
What counts as income
- Advertising revenue and payouts from platforms.
- Paid posts, sponsorships and affiliate commission.
- Subscriptions, tips and digital gifts once they are turned into money.
- Products and services you receive for promoting them, valued at what they would have cost you to buy.
The last point catches people out. HMRC’s guidance says plainly that income from creating online content includes the gifts and services you receive for promoting products, and that you use the value of what they would have cost if you had paid for them.
The allowance that helps
The trading allowance means the first £1,000 of trading income in a tax year is tax-free and need not be reported. It is a single allowance across everything you do: content, selling and services added together. Budget 2026 raises it to £3,000 from April 2027. If your costs are higher than the allowance, you can deduct your actual costs instead, but not both.
Source: HMRC guidance; Budget 2026.
Show the data
| 2026/27 | £1,000 |
|---|---|
| From 2027/28 | £3,000 |
When you need to register
Once trading income is over the allowance, register for Self Assessment and file a return each year. If your income from self-employment and property is over £50,000, you are already within Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, with quarterly updates; the threshold falls to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. Creators who grow quickly reach those levels sooner than they expect.
Records worth keeping from the start
- Every platform statement and payout, month by month.
- Agreements with brands, your invoices and what each deal paid, including products.
- Your costs: equipment, software, props, travel to shoots and a fair share of your phone and internet.
- The value of each gifted item, and whether you kept it, returned it or gave it away.
HMRC is paying attention. In November 2025 it published research into how content creators understand their tax obligations, based on in-depth interviews, so that it can help them get their tax right. The simplest protection is to treat it as a business from the first paid post.
Sources
This insight is general information, not advice for your circumstances. Talk to us before acting on it.