Buying from ebay, selling at car boot

stuninhox

Morning All

Was after a bit of advice! I am about to start buying small trinkets wholesale and selling at car boot sales. Basically I need to know if I need to register as a business, pay tax, get insurance etc.

I can't see me making a whole lot of money - probably less than £100 a week, I just want to earn a few beer tokens alongside my full time job. I'm sure that this is the sort of thing that most other people would jsut get on with but I am a bit of a worrier and would like to do things properly.

Thanks for any guidance in advance!

Savvy_Spender_South

Firs tax to consider is VAT on sales.

VAT is a broad subject but in very basic terms is adds 17.5% to luxury goods, thats most what you will be selling it appears.

HOWEVER, you do not need to charge VAT unless your business has an annual revenue of £70 000 or more.

If you do register for VAT though, you still willl not charge it, but you will be able to claim VAT back on your expenses, but you would need someone better than me (accountant) to help understand that.

DaveAshton

You'll need to register with HMRC ( http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/ ), but depending what you earn you may not have to pay tax on your earnings. it depends what other income streams you have, you can earn (I think) £6k tax-free, any more than that and you start paying tax.

Also, even if you don't have to pay tax, you still need to complete tax returns every year.

You should technically register as a business on ebay as well, but as you're only buying there, not selling, it won't make much difference whether you do or not.

Savvy_Spender_South

Just a thought, trinkets sound small and very chewable? you probably want business liability and stock insurance. cover your products from theft and loss, plus if a customer tries to sue, you may want a couple of million quid liability cover in your back pocket, expect this to be £10-£25 a month, availble from the normal companies like Direct line etc.

Crowqueen

DaveAshton wrote: »

You should technically register as a business on ebay as well, but as you're only buying there, not selling, it won't make much difference whether you do or not.

Being a business means you won't be covered by the Distance Selling Regulations, so unfortunately, yes, your eBay account will have to be business-registered too.

stuninhox

wow - so its not really worth it... what does someone have to do to make a bit of $$$ on the side these days!!!

EDIT - I won't be selling on ebay, the value of the goods would be quite small so I could take the hit on ebay business registration

DaveAshton

stuninhox wrote: »

wow - so its not really worth it... what does someone have to do to make a bit of $$$ on the side these days!!!

EDIT - I won't be selling on ebay, the value of the goods would be quite small so I could take the hit on ebay business registration

I disagree, it could be worth it if you could put the time in (maybe having a website would be better than a car-boot stall, especially if you promote it through Facebook twitter etc).

Crowqueen wrote:

Being a business means you won't be covered by the Distance Selling Regulations, so unfortunately, yes, your eBay account will have to be business-registered too.

You won't need to use Distance Selling Regs, if something you buy is not as described, Paypal will cover you.

spadoosh

Savvy_Spender_South wrote: »

Firs tax to consider is VAT on sales.

VAT is a broad subject but in very basic terms is adds 17.5% to luxury goods, thats most what you will be selling it appears.

HOWEVER, you do not need to charge VAT unless your business has an annual revenue of £70 000 or more.

If you do register for VAT though, you still willl not charge it, but you will be able to claim VAT back on your expenses, but you would need someone better than me (accountant) to help understand that.

The first tax to consider is income tax!! As it will be classed as a second income you will have to declare and assuming your already over the low rates with your full time job it is likely to be basic rate. You do not need to register for VAT based on the estimations your giving (£100 a week) and therfore dsont really need to look into it that much. If you had large outgoings which you pay VAT on it might be worht it but seen as its fairly smallscale no need should arise.

macfly

Savvy_Spender_South wrote: »

Just a thought, trinkets sound small and very chewable? you probably want business liability and stock insurance. cover your products from theft and loss, plus if a customer tries to sue, you may want a couple of million quid liability cover in your back pocket, expect this to be £10-£25 a month, availble from the normal companies like Direct line etc.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
chewable!!!!
expect this to be about £40 a month.