HMRC Puppy Taskforce – Not as cuddly as you may imagine

💼 HMRC Update: Big Changes for Side Hustlers & Puppy Breeders

March 2025 – An important update announced this week by the government – and it affects anyone earning extra cash from side hustles, including things like puppy breeding, reselling, freelancing, and more.

From 2029, the threshold for reporting income on a self-assessment tax return will rise from £1,000 to £3,000. This change is expected to benefit around 300,000 taxpayers, with an estimated 90,000 no longer needing to report their trading income to HMRC.

The new rules will apply to various activities, including selling items on platforms like Vinted and eBay, as well as creating online content. A new online form will also be introduced to simplify the declaration of cash earnings up to £3,000 for self-employed work.


The original article
HMRC sent out letters to millions of people who they believed did not declare income from breeding and selling puppies. These would have come as quite a shock if you received one out of the blue, and some of the language used in the letters was meant to worry you.

HMRC has changed legislation so that selling platforms must provide them with information about who is selling on their platforms. However, this is only one source of information they have used. This information is in the public domain, so even before the change in legislation, the evidence is out there.

Registrations with the Kennel Club and social media are good sources of public information. There are even rumours that information could also be coming from pet insurers and the RSPCA.

If you have received a letter, HMRC is suggesting you file a voluntary disclosure. They won’t give a time scale of how far to go back. In the UK, the tax system is self-assessment, so they expect you to provide all the information for as long as you have been receiving income, in this case from breeding puppies.

If you regularly breed puppies, you should file a self-assessment tax return, as this is likely to be classed as a trade.

What information do you need to supply to HMRC?

• All the money you received for the pups/kittens
• All the costs you incurred, including vet bills, mating fees, microchipping, injections, etc.

However, if you had a one-off litter, you could argue that this isn’t a trade at all. If you didn’t receive more than £1,000 in total for the pups in that tax year, you wouldn’t need to declare the income.

What if you’ve missed previous declarations?

Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t end there either. If you receive a letter and make a voluntary disclosure, the likelihood is that the taxable income you then declare is from a previous tax year, meaning you should have already declared this income. As a result, you are likely to incur penalties (fines for not declaring the income) and interest on any tax not paid. If you have been breeding for several years, this could add up.

These rules are not just for the sale of puppies but cover any kind of income—from breeding to rental properties, to selling on eBay, to name a few.