How much additional earning before taxation?

Easymoney

I am employee and pay standard taxes and Nat Ins on my income.

If I earn extra money through something like a car boot sale, ebay etc how much can I legally make before being taxed on this.

I know taking in a lodger and claiming rent of just over £4k a year is legal.

Any pointers on this?

Thanks in advance

Money_Grabber13579

Easymoney wrote: »

I am employee and pay standard taxes and Nat Ins on my income.

If I earn extra money through something like a car boot sale, ebay etc how much can I legally make before being taxed on this.

I know taking in a lodger and claiming rent of just over £4k a year is legal.

Any pointers on this?

Thanks in advance

For the rent, income of up to £4250 is tax free under the rent-a-room scheme, so yes, your right in it being entirely legal.

If you already pay tax on your income (you will probably have used up your personal allowance), then any additional income you make from something like ebay will be taxable. (It sounds like this is being run as a business - is that correct?)

fengirl_2

If you are selling your own, unwanted goods, there is no tax to pay.

trevormax

(simplifying things a bit here) If you are buying items with the intention of selling them on ebay or otherwise, the net profits are taxable from the first penny.

If, as Fengirl has said, you are just going round your house and selling stuff you dont want any more, then there is no tax to pay.

Easymoney

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

For the rent, income of up to £4250 is tax free under the rent-a-room scheme, so yes, your right in it being entirely legal.

If you already pay tax on your income (you will probably have used up your personal allowance), then any additional income you make from something like ebay will be taxable. (It sounds like this is being run as a business - is that correct?)

No not a business, far from it LOL

Easymoney

fengirl wrote: »

If you are selling your own, unwanted goods, there is no tax to pay.

Mainly personal goods, although some home grown veg and plants.

Do they classify as personal goods?

soolin

Home grown items sold for profit are taxable.

Easymoney

soolin wrote: »

Home grown items sold for profit are taxable.

I sell about £20 worth of tomatoes and cauliflower a car booty. If I do 10 car bootys in a year, do I then have to submit a tax form to the value of £200 for that financial year?
Surely it would cost more for administration costs, compared to the tax from the couple of hundred quid.

That's why I thought there would be a threshold, as in the lodger scenario.

Just want to keep myself on the right side of the law

Easymoney

jimmo wrote: »

Strictly speaking soolin is correct but you have to be careful about going over the top.
If your garden is so large that you cultivate crops that will certainly exceed your family needs with the intention of selling the excess then tax on profits may come into it.
If, like me, you cultivate crops for your family needs, and happen to end up with an excess occasionally, then, if you sell the excess, you could be taxable on the profits.
That is most definitely the profits, not your takings.
However, the taxman in me questions what, exactly you are up to. If you sell regularly on Ebay and at car-boots where exactly are you finding things to sell?
There has to be a limit on how much of your personal possessions you can sell. In the context of what you have posted, so far, you should be tax free. However I cannot help the feeling that something is amiss.
This may not be MSE but I cant see the point of going to a boot sale to sell a few tomatoes and cauliflowers and your story doesnt ring true to me.
I may well be wrong but, in my days as a taxman, I would certainly have fancied a little dig into you.

Thanks for your input, but there is no need to be so cynical!

I never said I sell regularly on ebay, you have jumped to conclusions.

I have openly and honestly queried this on a public forum. Not many would!

As for personal belongings, you'll be amazed at one can hord over time.
Quite simply, I spend too much on things I never use.
I always have something I'm no longer needing, everything from bric a brac, toys tools, leisure equipment.
Nothing wrong with having a wide and varied interest in many things.

As for selling any veg, they are a surplus from my allotment, most of them get swapped with fellow gardeners. I sell a little from time to time at car bootys, they are seasonal.

You might turn your nose up at £20, but thats alot in my book.
In short there is nothing amiss.

My OP was in relation to how much can one earn, with this in mind, if I wished to expand my cultivation as a side line, then I would like it to be fit and proper.

As it stands with my current situation, my next question would then be, how do you prove the profit margin (if any) to the taxman.

At the moment between rent of the allotment, costs seedling plants, fertiliser, compost, overheads, tools, propagators and electric to keep them heated, I'm am barely making anything on top, I could well be at a loss.

So the tax isn't on £200, it is on the profit of £200...............do you take tax payments in loose change LOL