How are content creators taxed in the UK?

When your content stops being a hobby

There is no single income figure that turns a hobby into a taxable trade. HMRC looks at the whole picture, often described as the badges of trade: whether you intend to make a profit, how regularly you post, whether you actively seek brand deals or subscribers, and whether you present yourself as a business. A one-off £20 from a video is unlikely to be trading. A channel you post to every week, promote, and monetise through several income streams almost certainly is.

The practical test most creators can use is simpler. If you are setting out to earn money from your content and doing it with any regularity, treat it as a trade and read on.

The £1,000 trading allowance

Every individual gets a trading allowance of £1,000 a year. If your total gross self-employed income, before any expenses, is £1,000 or less in a tax year, you usually do not need to tell HMRC about it or file a return for it.

Once your gross creator income goes over £1,000, you have to register for Self Assessment and report it. You then choose, each year, whether to deduct the £1,000 allowance from your income or to deduct your actual business expenses instead, whichever leaves you better off. You cannot claim both the allowance and your real expenses in the same year.

Registering for Self Assessment

If your income is over the trading allowance, you must register for Self Assessment with HMRC. The deadline is 5 October following the end of the tax year in which you started trading. So if your content first earned more than £1,000 in the 2026/27 tax year, which ends on 5 April 2027, you have to register by 5 October 2027.

Registration gives you a Unique Taxpayer Reference and enrols you to file a return. From then on you report your creator income, and any other income, on a Self Assessment return each year.

The tax and National Insurance you pay

You pay Income Tax on your profit, which is your income minus allowable expenses, not on your turnover. The first £12,570 is covered by the personal allowance and is taxed at 0%. Profit above that is taxed at 20% up to £50,270, at 40% from £50,271 to £125,140, and at 45% above £125,140.

On top of Income Tax you pay Class 4 National Insurance on your profit: 6% on profit between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% on anything above £50,270. Class 2 National Insurance is £3.65 a week for 2026/27 and mainly matters if your profit is low and you want to keep building your state pension entitlement.

Income paid in a foreign currency, such as US dollars from AdSense, Twitch or a US fan platform, is converted to pounds for your return. HMRC publishes exchange rates you can use, and many creators use the monthly average rate for the month each payment was received.

Payments on account catch a lot of creators out

If your Self Assessment bill is more than £1,000, and less than 80% of your tax was already collected at source, HMRC asks you to make payments on account towards next year as well. You pay your balancing payment for the year just gone plus a first payment on account on 31 January, then a second payment on account on 31 July.

Each payment on account is half of your previous year tax bill. In your first profitable year this means the January payment can be roughly one and a half times the tax you actually owe for that year, because you are paying the year and a half forward at once. It is the single most common cash-flow shock for new creators, so set the money aside before it lands.

How much to set aside

A safe working habit is to move a fixed share of every payment into a separate savings pot the day it arrives. For many creators in the basic-rate band, putting aside around 25% to 30% of profit covers Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance with a little to spare. Higher earners should set aside more.

This is a rule of thumb, not advice for your situation. Your real percentage depends on your total income, your expenses and whether payments on account apply. A creator accountant can give you a figure that fits your numbers.