Starting a jewellery business in the UK costs very little in fees and a great deal in stock and security. The compulsory parts are: register as a sole trader with HM Revenue & Customs or form a company (£100 online at Companies House); register a sponsor's mark with one of the four assay offices (£72 including VAT at London, £100 plus VAT at Sheffield, for ten years) if you will sell precious metal above the exemption weights; display the Hallmarking Act 1973 dealer's notice; register for VAT once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any twelve months; and register with HMRC as a High Value Dealer before you accept £10,000 or more in cash. Everything else - premises, stock, the safe, Jewellers Block insurance, a website - is a commercial decision with a price attached, and the ranges below are ranges, not quotes.

This is the order we would do it in, with the rule and the source for each step.

What does it cost to start a jewellery business in the UK?

Item Cost (Aug 2026) Compulsory?
Register as sole trader Free (Self Assessment registration with HMRC) One or the other
Form a limited company £100 online, £124 by post, Companies House One or the other
Sponsor's mark registration (assay office) London £72 inc VAT for 10 years, punch £85-90; Sheffield £100 + VAT, renewal £50 + VAT, punch about £80-£95 + VAT or laser set-up £50 + VAT Yes if you sell precious metal above exemption weights and want it hallmarked under your own mark
Hallmarking, per article London Assay Office from 6 April 2026: £18 per packet of 1-2 articles, £22 per packet plus £1.45 per article for 3 or more, second-hand items £9 per article, all plus VAT; other offices publish their own lists Yes above exemption weights
Dealer's notice Free download from any assay office; A4 minimum in the shop, notice B on a website Yes for anyone dealing in precious metal
VAT registration Free; required at £90,000 taxable turnover in a rolling 12 months or if you expect to cross it in the next 30 days When the threshold is crossed
High Value Dealer registration £300 application plus £400 per premises, then £400 a year per premises Yes before you accept or make a single cash payment, or linked payments, of £10,000 or more
Jewellers Block insurance Quoted on stock value, safe, alarm and location; not published Not legally compulsory; commercially essential, and a landlord or lender will require it
Safe, alarm, CCTV, shutters From the low thousands for an insurer-rated safe and monitored alarm; the insurer's warranties decide the specification Effectively compulsory - the policy is written around them
Business rates None if the premises' rateable value is £12,000 or less and it is your only property; tapering to full rates at £15,000 If you take premises
First stock The largest number, and yours to choose; see below -
Software Spreadsheet £0-£18/month; jewellery systems from about £100/month; see the spreadsheet article No

The regulatory bill for a maker selling silver at markets is under £300. The bill for a shop with a window full of gold is whatever the safe, the alarm and the first stock cost, and the insurer will tell you what the first two have to be.

Sole trader or limited company?

A sole trader registers for Self Assessment and trades under their own name or a trading name; a company costs £100 to form online and brings limited liability, a separate legal person to hold the stock, and more filing. For a maker starting part-time the sole trader route is simpler. For anyone carrying stock worth more than they could afford to lose, or taking on premises, the company is the usual choice because the stock and the lease are the company's. Either way, the VAT and High Value Dealer rules below apply to the business, not to the structure.

Do I have to hallmark jewellery I sell?

If it is described as gold, silver, platinum or palladium and it weighs more than the exemption weight, yes. The Hallmarking Act 1973 makes it an offence in the course of trade to describe an unhallmarked article as made of precious metal, or to supply it so described. The exemption weights, from the Birmingham Assay Office's hallmarking guidance, are:

  • Gold: 1 gram
  • Silver: 7.78 grams
  • Platinum: 0.5 grams
  • Palladium: 1 gram

Where an article mixes precious and base metal, the exemption weight is judged on the total metal weight; where it mixes two precious metals, the weight applying is that of the more precious one. A pre-1950 piece may be sold as precious metal without a hallmark if you can prove it is of minimum fineness and was made before 1950. That is the route for antique stock.

The recognised UK finenesses, in parts per thousand, are gold 375, 585, 750, 916, 990 and 999; silver 800, 925, 958 and 999; platinum 850, 900, 950 and 999; palladium 500, 950 and 999. A hallmark is three compulsory marks: your sponsor's mark, the fineness number and the assay office mark. To get your own mark you register with one of the four assay offices - London, Birmingham, Sheffield or Edinburgh - and buy a punch or a laser set-up. Then you send articles in, pay per piece, and get them back marked.

Two practical points for a start-up. First, much new jewellery bought from a UK wholesaler is already hallmarked under the wholesaler's mark, and you may sell it as it is. Second, if you import finished gold or silver jewellery it usually arrives unhallmarked, and unless it already carries an International Convention hallmark you cannot describe it as gold or silver in the UK until it has been through an assay office. Budget the time as well as the fee; punches take weeks to make.

Every dealer in precious metal must display the dealer's notice, approved by the British Hallmarking Council, in a conspicuous position. It is free from any assay office, A4 minimum in black and white for the shop, and there is a version for websites. Trading Standards enforce the Act.

When do I need to register for VAT, and what is the margin scheme?

You must register when taxable turnover in any rolling twelve months passes £90,000, or when you expect it to in the next 30 days. Below that, registering voluntarily lets you reclaim VAT on stock and costs but adds 20% to your prices to private customers, so most start-ups wait.

Once registered, new jewellery is standard-rated: 20% on the full price. Second-hand jewellery is different. Under the VAT margin scheme in VAT Notice 718, when you buy a piece from a private seller (who charged you no VAT) and sell it on, you pay VAT only on your margin, at one sixth of the difference, and your invoice must not show VAT separately. The price of using the scheme is the stock book: item by item, with twelve prescribed fields, kept for six years, and a sales invoice cross-referenced to the stock number and marked "Margin Scheme - second-hand goods". The stock book article lists the fields. Start the stock book on day one even if you are not VAT-registered; it is also your insurance schedule and your AML record.

If you will buy scrap gold from the public and sell it to a refiner, there is a third VAT regime: the gold reverse charge in VAT Notice 701/21, under which a VAT-registered seller charges no VAT on scrap sold at metal value to a VAT-registered buyer. Do I charge VAT on scrap gold explains it. Three VAT regimes on one counter is the reason jewellers' bookkeeping is harder than it looks.

Do I need to register as a High Value Dealer?

Only if you will accept or make cash payments of £10,000 or more for goods - in one payment or in linked payments. Since 30 June 2026 the threshold is a flat £10,000 in sterling (it was €10,000), and registration with HMRC must be in place before you take the money. The fees are £300 to apply and £400 per premises, then £400 a year. Most new jewellers avoid it by having a written policy of not taking cash at or near £10,000 and applying it every time. If you intend to deal in gold for cash, register. Our High Value Dealer article covers linked payments and the smaller £800 occasional transaction threshold.

Separately, anyone buying gold from the public should take and keep identification and a signed purchase record. It is what a police officer asks for when a stolen chain turns up, and it is the purchase invoice the margin scheme requires anyway.

What insurance does a jewellery business need?

Jewellers Block is the trade's policy: stock, goods in trust (customers' repairs and valuations), cash, transit, loss of profits, liability and usually professional indemnity, in one contract. TH March, the National Association of Jewellers' partner broker, lists the sections. Premiums are not published; they are quoted on the stock sum insured, the safe's rating, the alarm, the location and your procedures.

The part to understand before you sign a lease is that the policy is written around warranties: a specified safe, a monitored alarm with hold-up buttons, limits on stock out of the safe overnight, keys removed from the premises, windows emptied at close. Breach one and a claim can fail. So the order of operations is: get the Jewellers Block quote first, let it dictate the safe and alarm specification, then fit out. Doing it the other way round is how people buy a safe twice. Employers' liability is compulsory by law the day you employ anyone. Customers' pieces in your workshop are a separate question, covered in is customer jewellery insured in my workshop.

Where should I sell - shop, online or both?

A shop brings the lease, rates (nil up to £12,000 rateable value, full by £15,000), fit-out and the security spend, and it brings walk-in trade, repairs and the buy-in counter, which is where an independent's margin usually lives. Online brings the Consumer Contracts Regulations: a 14-day cancellation right for distance sales, which does not apply to personalised or custom-made pieces, and a 14-day refund clock once goods come back. In-store there is no change-of-mind right unless you choose to offer one.

For the platform decision - Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, with fees and the one-of-a-kind stock problem - see the platform comparison. Etsy's rules admit handmade, own-design and vintage (20+ years) jewellery and exclude new manufactured jewellery bought for resale, which decides it for many start-ups.

What should the first stock be?

Three observations rather than a shopping list. First, stock is capital; a shop that opens with £40,000 of stock and sells a third of it a year is carrying £27,000 that earns nothing, so buy depth where you sell and breadth nowhere. Second, second-hand and buy-in stock under the margin scheme is where the margin is widest and the record-keeping is heaviest; decide on day one whether you are a new-jewellery retailer, a second-hand dealer, or both, because the stock book and the VAT follow from it. Third, every piece gets a stock number, a cost, a weight, a fineness and a photograph the day it arrives. The spreadsheet article has the columns. If the weight and fineness are in the record, the insurer, the valuer, the refiner and the police can all be answered from it.

The first-year checklist

  1. Structure: sole trader registration or £100 company.
  2. Assay office: sponsor's mark registered, punch or laser ordered, dealer's notice printed and displayed, notice B on the website.
  3. Bank account, bookkeeping, and the stock book started before the first purchase.
  4. Jewellers Block quote obtained; safe and alarm bought to the insurer's specification; employers' liability if you employ.
  5. Cash policy written: nothing at or near £10,000, or HVD registration in place first.
  6. VAT: threshold watched monthly; margin scheme and, if relevant, gold reverse charge understood before the first second-hand or scrap sale.
  7. Online: returns policy compliant with the 14-day rule; platform chosen with the stock-sync problem in mind.

What we could not verify

  • Per-article hallmarking charges at Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh. We reproduced London's April 2026 list; the other three publish their own and the British Hallmarking Council sets maxima.
  • Typical Jewellers Block premiums. Not published by any broker; quoted case by case.
  • Safe and alarm costs. The "low thousands" is a working estimate; the insurer's warranty decides the specification and therefore the price.
  • Whether Birmingham and Edinburgh registration fees match London and Sheffield. We verified London (£72 inc VAT) and Sheffield (£100 + VAT).

Sources

This is general information, not legal, tax or insurance advice, and it is not a quotation. Fees and thresholds change; check each linked page before you act on a figure, and take the VAT and insurance decisions to an accountant and a specialist broker.

Milleso is built for the day the stock book starts: every piece serialised with its cost, weight and fineness, VAT treatment decided at intake across the margin scheme, standard rate and the gold reverse charge, cash payments monitored against the £10,000 threshold, and exports to Xero or Sage. One month free, and we migrate whatever you have already started in a spreadsheet.