Tax for content creators and influencers: brand deals, ad revenue and gifted products
Reviewed by Rob Webb, practising accountant since 2015 · Last reviewed September 2026 · Figures are for the 2026/27 tax yearReviewed by Rob Webb, practising accountant since 2015 · Last reviewed September 2026 · Figures are for the 2026/27 tax yearDo you make money from content? Brand deals, ad revenue, affiliate links, subscriptions and gifted products all count. Once it's more than £1,000 a year, you must register with HMRC and file a tax return.
Do free gifts count? Yes. A product sent to you in exchange for a post is income at its market value. On £17,700 of profit in 2026/27, the bill is £1,333.80.
Want to check your own costs? See what you can claim as a content creator →
If you are paid for content, you are running a business, whether or not it feels like one. There is no exemption for it being a hobby that grew, for being under a certain age, or for the money arriving on a platform rather than in a bank.
The test is gross income before costs. Over £1,000 in a tax year and you must register and file; under £1,000 the trading allowance covers you and there is nothing to report.
Very many creators have never filed anything before, and find out late. If that is you, the position is simple and fixable: register, file, pay. Registering is free, penalties for filing late start at £100 and grow, and HMRC receives information from digital platforms about creator earnings — so unreported income is not invisible.
The government has announced a rise in the reporting threshold from £1,000 to £3,000, but no start date is confirmed on gov.uk. The £1,000 figure is the one that applies.
Yes, and it catches people out.
If a brand sends you a product and there is an understanding that you will post about it, tag it, or feature it, you have been paid. The payment happens to be a product rather than cash. Its market value goes into your turnover for the year you receive it.
The same applies to barter arrangements generally: a free hotel stay in return for coverage, a restaurant meal comped for a review, a gifted camera in exchange for a video, a service provided free in return for promotion.
Three practical points.
Value it sensibly. Use the price the public would pay, and keep a screenshot of the product page from the day it arrived.
You cannot deduct what you did not pay for. A gifted £400 jacket is £400 of income with no £400 expense to set against it, because it cost you nothing. That is why gifts create a real cash tax cost on income you never received in cash.
Genuinely unsolicited items with no obligation are different. A brand posting you something out of the blue, with no agreement and no expectation of coverage, is not a paid arrangement. The line turns on whether anything was expected of you in return.
If you regularly receive high-value gifts, budget for the tax out of your cash income, or decline the ones that are not worth it.
Here is a creator for 2026/27 earning from several sources at once. The figures are illustrative.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Brand deals and sponsored content | £14,000 |
| Platform ad and creator fund revenue | £6,500 |
| Affiliate commission | £2,400 |
| Gifted products, at market value | £2,100 |
| Turnover | £25,000 |
| Allowable expenses (below) | £7,300 |
| Profit | £17,700 |
| Personal allowance | £12,570 |
| Taxable profit | £5,130 |
| Income tax at 20% | £1,026 |
| Class 4 NI at 6% on £5,130 | £307.80 |
| Total to pay by 31 January | £1,333.80 |
The expenses break down as: capital allowances on camera, lighting, microphone and laptop £2,900; editing software and stock music subscriptions £660; props and materials consumed in content £680; agency and management commission £1,750; website, scheduling and analytics tools £310; working from home flat rate £312; business share of phone and internet £288; accountancy £400.
Profit above the Small Profits Threshold of £7,105 means Class 2 National Insurance is treated as paid at no cost, protecting the contribution record without a separate charge.
Note that the £2,100 of gifted products has added £2,100 to taxable profit but nothing to the bank balance. Roughly £546 of the bill above — income tax at 20% and Class 4 at 6%, a marginal 26% on that slice — has to be paid out of cash earned elsewhere.
| What you can claim | What to watch |
|---|---|
| Cameras, lenses, lighting, microphones, tripods, phones and computers | Capital items, relieved through capital allowances. Where you also use them privately, claim only the business proportion — with a phone that is rarely 100% |
| Editing software, stock music, stock footage, fonts, presets and design tools | Allowable where used for content. Subscriptions are ordinary running costs |
| Props, sets, backdrops and materials consumed in making content | Allowable where genuinely used up in the content. A craft creator's materials, yes. A wardrobe you keep and wear, no |
| Agency, management and talent commission | Allowable. Report the gross fee the brand paid as turnover and deduct the commission separately |
| Platform fees, payment processing and subscription platform cuts | Allowable. Again, turnover is the gross figure, not the net payout |
| Giveaway prizes you buy for your audience | Allowable where the giveaway promotes your business. Keep the receipts and evidence of the promotion |
| Website, hosting, scheduling, analytics and email list tools | Allowable |
| Working from home to film, edit and handle admin | Flat rate by hours per month in 2026/27: £10 for 25–50 hours, £18 for 51–100, £26 for 101 or more. Telephone and internet are claimed separately on a business-proportion basis |
| Travel to shoots, brand meetings, creator events and locations | 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in 2026/27, then 25p. Commuting and personal trips do not count |
| Clothing and make-up | The hard one. Ordinary clothing and everyday make-up are not allowable even when bought specifically to film in. Genuine costume and specialist theatrical make-up can be |
| Paid promotion and advertising of your own content | Allowable |
Never having filed before, and not knowing the clock has already started.
Content income arrives gradually. A £30 affiliate payment, then a small creator fund payout, then a £500 brand deal. Nobody tells you that you are now in business, so by the time the income is obviously real a tax year has often closed and a deadline has passed.
The key dates: tell HMRC by 5 October following the end of the tax year in which your income passed £1,000, and file and pay online by the 31 January after that tax year ends.
Miss the filing deadline and there is a £100 penalty straight away, even if you owe no tax. After three months it becomes £10 a day for up to 90 days, a maximum of £900. At six months a further 5% of the tax due or £300 if greater, and the same again at twelve months. Late payment carries its own penalties of 5% of the unpaid tax at 30 days, six months and twelve months, plus interest.
That is a reason to act now rather than in January, not a reason to panic. Penalties stop growing once you file.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax replaces the annual return with four quarterly updates plus a final declaration, phased in by income level.
Qualifying income is gross self-employment turnover plus gross property income, added together, before expenses. Any PAYE employment income is excluded, as are partnership profit shares, dividends and pensions. For the creator above, qualifying income is £25,000 — the gross turnover, including the gifted products, not the £17,700 profit.
At £25,000 our example creator is over £20,000 and joins from 6 April 2028, tested on the 2026–27 return. Anyone with qualifying income of £20,000 or below stays permanently outside it.
Quarterly updates for standard periods are due 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, each cumulative from the start of the tax year rather than a standalone quarter. The final declaration is still 31 January, and records go in compatible software kept for at least five years after that date.
Penalties inside Making Tax Digital are points-based rather than fixed: one point per missed quarterly update or return, £200 at four points, and £200 for each miss after that. Points expire 24 months after the missed deadline if you stay below the threshold.
If you made £600 last year from affiliate links, you are inside the trading allowance and there is nothing to file.
If you earn a little over £1,000, have almost no costs and are using the trading allowance, the return takes an hour and costs nothing to submit yourself. The same goes if all your income comes from one platform with a clean annual statement. Plenty of creators should simply do it themselves.
Come to us when there are several income sources to reconcile, when gifted items and barter start to matter, when you have missed a year, or when you would rather not carry the deadlines.
Register for Self Assessment and file. A late return attracts a £100 penalty immediately, so the sooner you file the smaller the problem. Penalties stop accruing once the return is in and the tax is paid.
If there was any understanding that you would post, tag or feature the item, it is income at market value. Genuinely unsolicited items with no expectation of anything in return are treated differently, so keep a record of how each one arrived.
Yes. Income is taxable when you earn it, not when you withdraw it. Money sitting in a platform balance still belongs in your turnover.
Generally no. Ordinary clothing is not allowable even where it was bought purely to film in. Genuine costume, which you could not wear day to day, is treated differently.
Class 4 National Insurance is 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 in 2026/27, and 2% above £50,270. Class 2 is no longer a compulsory weekly charge: at profits of £7,105 or more it is treated as paid at nil cost, which protects your contribution record.
Filed Tax files Self Assessment returns and Making Tax Digital quarterly updates for content creators, including first-ever returns and late ones. The first month is free. It is £25 a month after that, covering all four quarterly updates, the final declaration, unlimited questions and deadline reminders. Send us your platform statements and we will tell you where you stand.
Rob is a Certified Xero Advisor with a BSc from the University of Salford. Last reviewed September 2026 against GOV.UK guidance current at that date. This guide is general information, not personal tax advice. Figures are for the 2026/27 tax year and can change at each Budget — always confirm the current numbers on GOV.UK or ask us to check your situation.