How creator tax actually works

HMRC doesn't care which app the money came from — it cares about the total. Every stream is added together as trading income: platform ad revenue, cash sponsorships, subscriptions and tips (they're earnings, not gifts), product and merch sales, and the market value of gifted deals where content was agreed.

From that gross total you deduct either your real allowable expenses or the flat £1,000 trading allowance (the estimator picks whichever is bigger). What's left is taxable profit, taxed at your marginal rate — which is why the estimator asks about a day job: £20,000 of creator profit on top of a £30,000 salary is taxed very differently from £20,000 on its own.

The set-aside habit The single best creator money habit: move the estimator's per-£100 figure into a separate tax pot every time a platform pays you. January stops being an event.

What this estimate can't see

Student loan repayments, pension contributions (which cut the bill), the High Income Child Benefit Charge, US withholding you may be able to reclaim, and whether a limited company would now beat sole trader. That's the difference between an estimate and advice — the second one's our job.