Do gifts and freebies count as income? For creators, usually yes

One of the biggest surprises for content creators at tax time isn’t the money: it’s the free stuff. The PR box, the gifted gadget, the comped hotel stay: if you received it for promoting something, HMRC may treat it as income, even though no money changed hands.

HMRC’s rule, in one line

HMRC puts it plainly in its guidance for online content creators (opens in a new tab): you must include the value of any gifts or services you receive from promoting products online, because these count as income. So a product worth £300, sent to you for a review, is £300 of income on your books, the same as if a brand had paid you £300 in cash.

The test: a real gift, or a payment in kind?

Not every freebie is taxable. What matters is why you received it. A genuine, no-strings present is different from something a brand sent in exchange for a post, story or review, or with the expectation of one. That second kind is a “payment in kind”: payment in the form of goods instead of cash, and it is taxable at its value. If you are not sure which a particular item was, that is a question for your accountant or HMRC, not a guess.

What value to write down

HMRC asks for the value of what you received, which normally means the fair value: roughly what the item would cost to buy. Note it down when it arrives: what it was, who sent it, and what it was worth. Non-cash income is the easiest thing to forget by the time January comes around, and a quick record now saves a scramble later. If something is genuinely hard to value, ask your accountant or HMRC.

Why this matters for MTD

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax uses your gross income (the total before you take off any expenses) to decide whether it applies to you. Gifts and payments in kind count towards that total. So a year of freebies can quietly push you over the threshold even if your cash income sits below it. The two-minute checker works on gross income, so keep your gifts in the number, and see MTD for content creators for how the thresholds work.