selling cars as a private seller

ballyclover

hi

i wish to buy and sell cars to make a little extra. I do not work in the car industry and am struggling to find information

i have i think, found i can sell up 6 cars a year as a private individual.

Does anyone know this for sure, as i intend to make at least between 400 and 1000 on every car i sell.

Where do i stand with the tax man?

I am in full time employment earning 25000 a year

thanks

goldspanners

ballyclover wrote: »

Does anyone know this for sure, as i intend to make at least between 400 and 1000 on every car i sell.

tell me where and what you are buying to get that kind of mark up,while offering no warranty or aftersales to the buyer.

i think your mark up will be slightly lower than you expect at the bottom end.

ahh, your the guy who has bought all the focus rs' and you selling them on 5 grand more than ford arent you?

Inactive

ballyclover wrote: »

Does anyone know this for sure, as i intend to make at least between 400 and 1000 on every car i sell.

Good luck, but I somehow doubt that you will achieve that kind of mark up unless you have a very good cheap reliable supplier.

Don't forget the insurance costs etc.

pianeet

Even as a private seller you will need proper traders insurance,each car will have to be registered in your name, as you are a private individual not a business,and as the onus is now on the seller to send the logbook off ,you are not going to be able just to keep it in the old sellers name for a couple of weeks,so you will add another name to the log book as well.
And if anyone comes to look at a car the first thing they should ask is why the log book is not in your name,and if you answer i am just buying a nd selling a few cars to make a bit of money they would therefore class you as a trader.

david69_2

I think you can make good money on selling cars and vans its all about where you buy them from.
I would be careful buying from auctions unless you know what your looking for but this is where you can make your money.

Hintza

I don't wish to sound too harsh but if you are asking this question on here I suspect your knowledge will not be good enough to make this work for you. Good points have been raised by all the posters above.

If I were you I would probably start by just buying a car for myself, maybe tarting it up a bit and selling it on a month or so later. At least that way if you !!!! it up at least you have a set of wheels for your own use and not some car sitting in a corner depreciating.

blue_haddock

You cannot buy and sell cars as a private individual with a view to making a profit on them. The moment you do that you become a trader because that is what you are doing!

If you are having to ask these kinds of questions then you probably do not have enough knowledge or experience to do it and make a profit.

ballyclover

Hi

Thank you all for the replies.

Just to clear things up.

I bought a car very cheap from a family member who could no longer run it, the log book was changed to my name and 2 weeks later i put it up for sale.i paid 500 for the car and sold it for 1200, 700 profit.I sold the car from home. family member told me to get what i could for it.( i did give them some extra as well after the sale)

Okay, i looked in autotrader for cars i felt i could sell with a profit,i found a Ka, which was cheap and in good condition. I did the same as above and 2 weeks later sold it, i made 300 on that sale.

So i am asking, how many can i sell as a private individual before tax. For all anyone knows i may have bought for myself and decided to sell it as it wasnt what i wanted

I dont believe i am a real trader, although i guess thats what i am doing.I understand u can do this 6 times in a year, which is why i asked the question to see if anyone knows for sure

thanks

iolanthe07

Sorry, but if I was a buyer I would avoid you like the plague; all the disadvantages of buying from a trader without any of the advantages.

Batchy

generally... you will be considered a trader once you consider yourself to be selling more than 4 cars per year...

If you don't make any money after expenses then you will not have to pay tax anyway!

You have added responsibilities as a trader over a private seller, so its important to differentiate.

As someone said, if its your own car and you swap it regularly, then its not a problem.

If you buy trade insurance then it says it all really!

Take it easy

withabix

Batchy wrote: »

generally... you will be considered a trader once you consider yourself to be selling more than 4 cars per year...

The moment you buy a car (or anything) with the intention of selling it on at a profit, you are running a business.

Selling cars is no different to selling anything else.