Chancellor John Healey delivered his first Budget on 28 October 2026, and buried in the small print is the single biggest tax change for small and part-time OnlyFans creators this year: the tax-free trading allowance is tripling from £1,000 to £3,000 from 6 April 2027. If you earn less than that from your page in a tax year, you will no longer need to register as self-employed or tell HMRC about it at all.
Why it matters to creators
Most new creators start small — a few subscribers, the odd tip, maybe £50 to £100 a month while they work out if it’s worth doing properly. Under the old £1,000 threshold, that income tipped over the line fast, technically requiring registration with HMRC even for people barely covering their phone bill. From April 2027, you can earn up to £3,000 a year from your platform before you have to tell anyone. For full-time earners, there’s a smaller but useful win too: everyone can now deduct up to £3,000 as a flat allowance instead of itemising actual expenses, which is handy if your real costs — subscriptions, editing software, a cut to a chatter — come in under that.
The flip side is that nothing else moved in creators’ favour. Income tax thresholds stay frozen until 2031, dividend tax rates and National Insurance are unchanged, and tax on savings interest is going up again. So this is one genuine win inside a Budget that otherwise squeezes earners through fiscal drag.
What actually changed, versus what we predicted
We flagged five possible changes before the Budget in our earlier look at what might hit OnlyFans income. Now we know the real outcome, according to coverage from MoneySavingExpert, Which? and Unbiased:
- Trading allowance: up from £1,000 to £3,000, from 6 April 2027 — the headline change for side-hustle creators.
- Dividend tax: unchanged. Rates stay at 10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35%, following April 2026’s rise, with the £500 allowance untouched.
- National Insurance: no change to Class 4 rates (6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, 2% above). Thresholds remain frozen into 2030/31.
- Income tax: personal allowance stays at £12,570 and the higher-rate threshold at £50,270, both frozen until at least April 2031.
- Savings interest tax: rising a further two points from April 2027, to 24% (basic), 44% (higher) and 49% (additional) — relevant if you’re parking profits rather than spending them.
In short: the Budget was kinder to people just starting out than the pre-Budget chatter suggested, and largely neutral — or mildly worse, via frozen thresholds and the savings tax rise — for anyone already earning well above the new allowance.
If you run OnlyFans through a limited company
One change worth flagging for creators who’ve incorporated: if you’ve gone the limited company route, Business Asset Disposal Relief — the lower 18% capital gains rate available when you sell or wind up a qualifying business — now applies only to the first £500,000 of lifetime gains, down from £1 million, from 6 April 2027. It won’t touch most creators day-to-day, but it matters if you’re building a business with an eventual sale or wind-down in mind.
There’s also a new benefit for self-employed parents: around 150,000 self-employed partners who currently get no statutory parental pay will become eligible for two weeks’ support worth up to £194 a week, from April 2029. The Treasury hasn’t yet confirmed how creators will apply or prove eligibility, so treat that one as a future watch-item rather than something to plan around today.
What this doesn’t change
The trading allowance is about whether you need to register and report — not a blanket tax-free amount on top of other income. If you’re already registered as self-employed with higher earnings, this is simply a bigger flat deduction option. It also doesn’t touch the separate Making Tax Digital rules that kick in for creators earning over £30,000 from April 2027 — that’s a different threshold, for a different obligation (quarterly digital reporting, not whether you register at all). And it’s a UK-only change: US creators still work to the IRS’s $20,000/200-transaction 1099-K threshold, which hasn’t moved.
For a sense of scale, the new £3,000 line is pocket change next to what the platform’s biggest earners pull in — creators like the one in our interview with a creator now earning £73,600 a month are a world away from the side-hustle crowd this allowance is aimed at. But for the thousands of creators testing the water, it’s a meaningful change to how early they have to deal with HMRC at all.
What to do now
- If you earn under £1,000 a year currently and haven’t registered, you still don’t need to for this tax year — and from April 2027, that ceiling rises to £3,000.
- If you’re between £1,000 and £3,000 and already registered, you can keep reporting, but from April 2027 you won’t be legally required to — speak to an adviser before deregistering if you’re close to the line or your income is growing.
- If you’re already well above £3,000, check whether claiming the trading allowance as a flat deduction beats itemising your actual expenses — it often does for low-overhead creator businesses.
- If you run a limited company and are thinking about winding it down or selling the business in the next few years, factor the lower £500,000 Business Asset Disposal Relief cap into that timing.
- Keep records regardless of the threshold. HMRC can still ask questions about income you didn’t report if it turns out you were over the limit.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice — speak to a qualified accountant about your specific situation, especially if you’re close to a threshold or run your income through a limited company.
