Say ‘I do’ to getting your side hustle tax right

• Wedding season is here – and so is a reminder that income from side hustles may be taxable
• Anyone earning more than £1,000 may need to register for Self Assessment and declare their income to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• A free online tool can help people earning extra money check if and when they need to report their additional income

The invitations are out, the venues are booked and the flowers are ordered – but for wedding suppliers who have turned their hobby into a side hustle, there is one more item on the to-do list: checking their tax obligations.

As wedding season gets underway, HMRC is reminding anyone earning extra income from activities like selling wedding stationery, filming the first dance or cake-making, that they will need to tell HMRC if they earn more than £1,000.

HMRC’s Help for Hustles campaign is here to help side hustlers get their tax right, quickly and easily – whether that’s wedding suppliers, parents earning from a hobby business or content creators making money from posting about the latest trends online.

Kevin Hubbard, HMRC’s Director of Small Business & Individuals, said:

For many people, a side hustle is a valuable source of extra income. If you’re earning more than £1,000 a year from your side hustle it’s important to understand your tax responsibilities, and HMRC wants to make that as straightforward as possible.

You can check if you need to do a Self Assessment tax return by using the tool on GOV.UK. It takes minutes to use, tells you exactly what you need to do and means no unexpected tax bills later.

If someone has earned more than £1,000 from their side hustle in a tax year, they may need to complete a Self Assessment tax return.

They can use the ‘Where is your additional income from?’ tool on GOV.UK. It takes a few minutes to complete and, if a tax return is required, it will explain how to register.

New entrants to Self Assessment should register for the 2025 to 2026 tax year by 5 October 2026.They must file their online tax return and pay any tax due by 31 January 2027.

The £1,000 threshold covers all side hustle income combined – so someone earning £600 from wedding photography and £500 from social media posts would need to register as their total exceeds £1,000.

Not all extra income is taxable. Selling unwanted personal belongings – such as clearing out a wardrobe – does not usually need to be reported to HMRC. But regularly selling goods for profit, or providing a service for payment, is likely to count as trading and may need to be declared. Customers can check if they need to tell HMRC about additional income on GOV.UK.

Case Study

“As soon as the wedding bookings started coming in, I knew I needed to look into my tax”

Lianna Dickson, 30, from Livingston, is currently on maternity leave from her role in influencer marketing and runs a successful wedding content creation business alongside family life as a new mum.

After getting married in 2024, Lianna realised she regretted not hiring a wedding content creator to capture behind-the-scenes moments from her own wedding day. With a background in social media and a long-held dream of running her own business, she saw the opportunity to combine both and launched Captured By Fifteen.

Lianna said:

“I fell in love with all things weddings following my own and thought it was the perfect way to combine something I loved with the work experience I had.”

As a wedding content creator, Lianna captures authentic, behind-the-scenes moments as they naturally unfold on her phone, delivering raw footage and professionally edited highlight reels within 24 hours.

“Couples can wake up and relive their full wedding the very next morning in the most authentic way.”

Her business took off quickly and within her first year she had shot almost 50 weddings. As bookings and income grew, she knew she needed to look into her tax obligations.

“As soon as I started booking in a number of weddings I knew this was going to be a decent amount of extra money. I read a lot of information on GOV.UK and HMRC’s website. Once I realised my income was over the £1,000 trading allowance, I knew I’d need to complete a Self Assessment tax return. Everything online was super easy to understand.”

She found the process more straightforward than expected, keeping a detailed spreadsheet with tabs for invoices, outgoings, subscriptions and mileage to stay on top of her figures throughout the year.

“I had my tax return done within the hour. It was so much easier than I thought it would be. I thought I would need to input every single transaction and that it would take hours, but it wasn’t the case at all – I had been keeping record of all the numbers, so it was really just a case of filling in information and copying the figures over.”

Her advice to anyone in a similar position is simple.

“Just keep track of everything and speak to someone who understands the process — or look up videos of someone explaining it if you struggle with just reading things.”

Lianna explains how her side hustle started on YouTube.

HMRC is encouraging anyone in a similar position – whether filming weddings, photographing events, baking celebration cakes or selling handmade goods – to use the Tax Help for Hustles guide or the free online HMRC tool to check whether they need to register.

Further information

There is further guidance and information about filling in a Self Assessment tax return on GOV.UK, plus a list of who needs to complete a tax return

The £1,000 trading allowance means anyone earning less than £1,000 in a tax year does not need to declare it or pay tax on it.

Anyone who no longer needs to file a Self Assessment return should tell HMRC as soon as possible to avoid a penalty.

The Tax Help for Hustles campaign guide covers four key areas: buying or making things to sell; providing a service (ie delivery drivers, fitness instructors); content creation and influencing; and renting out property.

According to HMRC research published in 2023, one in ten people in the UK are operating in the hidden economy, with 65% of these individuals largely unaware they should be registered for tax.

HMRC research on reasons for non-declaration: 35% said income was too small to matter; 32% said it was not worth the time; 21% said income was irregular or temporary so they did not know they had to declare it; 22% said it was irregular or temporary and not worth the time.